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THE AVENUE OF THE ALLIES—1918 


FIFTH AVENUE 
OLD AND NEW 








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FIFTH AVENUE 
OLD AND NEW 


1824- 
ne 24 


By 


HENRY COLLINS BROWN 
Director, Museum of the City of New York 


Official Publication of 


THE FIFTH AVENUE ASSOCIATION 
in Commemoration of the One Hundredth 
Anniversary of the Founding 
of Fifth Avenue 













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© 1924 BY 
HENRY COLLINS BROWN 
NEW YORK 
\ 





Produced by if, 
Wynkoop Hallenbeck Craw 


Printing Head 9 Le 
New York City | 


To Att New Yorkers 
Native or adopted, this volume 
is affectionately dedicated by 


THe AUTHOR 








WASHINGTON MrEws—AN ArtISTS’ COLONY, FORMERLY THE STABLES OF THE HOUSES 
FACING THE SQUARE 


FOREWORD 


ITH the commemoration of the one-hundredth anniversary of the opening 

of Fifth Avenue, our Association was presented with a unique opportunity. 
The history of Fifth Avenue had been told many times—and well told, but 
the previous books emphasized only certain phases of the Avenue’s greatness. 
There was needed a survey comprehensive enough to bring together the forces 
embraced in the Greater Fifth Avenue of the twentieth century and the tradi- 
tions of the old Fifth Avenue. It has been our endeavor, through this volume, 
to trace the romance, art and industry of the Fifth Avenue section as a continuous 
historical development from 1824 to 1924. 

This Centennial History, therefore, represents a serious effort to achieve civic 
and historic value, to make our book worthy of the Centennial Celebration which 
inspired it. ‘The history contains new material and corrects some of the old. Its 
new pictures are an enrichment of the Avenue’s history which is too obvious to stress. 

We have used the word civic with a purpose. As we study the expansion 
of Fifth Avenue from a rural highway to a national symbol, the observation is 
forced upon us that its development was shaped and conditioned by civic con- 
sciousness, expressed through organized effort. ‘These constructive influences were 
centralized in the Fifth Avenue Association, which was formed in 1907 at a time 
when destructive forces were without a check, either in law or in public opinion. 
Seventeen years ago the rapid northward growth of the city threatened the per- 
manent injury of Fifth Avenue and the great shopping and residential district, 
of which it is the main artery. The Fifth Avenue Association entered upon its 
work at the psychological moment which divides chaos from control. A brief 
summary of major activities is, therefore, properly a part of this Centennial History. 


[ 13} 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


Convinced that commercial progress and the growth of land values are the 
direct consequences of organized communal effort, The Fifth Avenue Association 
worked out a definite civic program, to which it has adhered since its foundation, 
and in the carrying out of which it has been fortunate in having the co-operation 
of other civic bodies—notably the Save New York Committee, under the able 
chairmanship of J. Howes Burton, who was instrumental in moving the garment 
trades to Seventh Avenue. 

The program of the Association had the single purpose of safeguarding the 
highest standards of the section. Projecting signs were taken down; sidewalk 
obstructions were cleared away; the streets in the section were widened; increased 
police protection was provided; peddlers and loiterers were barred. ‘The problem 
of traffic*regulation received scientific study, and the system now in operation, 
symbolized by the great bronze traffic towers presented by the Association, has 
been an example for the whole country. Never losing sight of the fact that art 
and industry go hand in hand, the Association has promoted architectural harmony 
and presents yearly prizes for the best new buildings and the best altered build- 
ings. ‘The Fifth Avenue Association functions in its civic work much like the 
trafic tower functions in the field of traffic regulation. 

In closing this foreword, it is our pleasant duty to thank the author of this 
work, Henry Collins Brown, for his zeal and industry. With him, our General 
Manager, Captain William J. Pedrick, worked in the closest collaboration, organiz- 
ing research activities and supervising the selection of material. Every page 
bears evidence of his critical and untiring efforts to make this volume worthy of the 
Centennial Celebration. And, working earnestly with him, credit should be given 
to our secretary, Thomas W. Hughes, whose counsel regarding the various prob- 
lems arising in the production of this work was invaluable, and to Frederick N. 
Sard, our Centennial Director of Research and Publicity, who, in collaboration 
with our own Research Department, organized the necessary critical analysis and 
checking up of the text. As a result, we are justified in making the assertion that 
this Centennial Volume is as accurate as humanly possible. 

We were most fortunate in having the co-operation of prominent New Yorkers 
as members of the Advisory Body for the Centennial Celebration. The Chair- 
man of that body, Robert W. De Forest, and an associate, William Rhinelander 
Stewart, rendered active assistance in the preparation of parts of the text. Credit 
is likewise given to The Fifth Avenue Bank, whose two excellent monographs, 
“Fifth Avenue” (1915) and “Fifth Avenue Events” (1916), were freely consulted 
in writing this history. 

The Chairman of the Publication Committee, Franklin Simon, gave his time 
and his thought without stint. His co-operation merits this special acknowledgment. 

To all of these, and to those unwittingly omitted, we offer our sincere thanks. 


THE FIFTH AVENUE’ ASSOCIA TIONING 


Joun H. Towne, 
Chairman of the Board of Directors. 


Rosert Grier Cooke, President. 


[ 14] 


























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-" PLAN 
of the City of 
NEW YORK, 


IN NORTH AMEBICA 
Surveyed un the Fears 1766 & 1767. 


THE RATZER MAP, 1767 











“Shanty Town’? covered Fifth Avenue east of Central Park till late in the ’6os. Frail wooden shacks perched high on rocks 
covered the section we now call ‘‘Millionaire’s Row” 


Old Fifth Avenue 


“The Counsel reports that the Superior Court has confirmed proceedings of the Commissioners of 
Estimate and Assessment in the opening of Fifth Avenue from its'commencement at Art Street* 
to 13th Street. The Street Commissioner recommends it to go into effect November first next, 
and it is Resolved that the Street Commissioner be directed to take necessary measures to carry 
the opening into effect. Report Approved and Resolution adopted.’”’—-Minutes of the Common 
Council, September 27, 1824. 


*Now Waverly Place. 


T would not be easy for men of to-day to picture the rural setting of the 
region lying north of Washington Square in 1824. As yet the land retained 
traces of its primeval loneliness. With the exception of several additional 
farmhouses there had been but little change from Colonial days. The Indian 
trails, the roads made by grazing cattle and the country lanes which connected 

one little farm with another, were the only crossways. On the opposite page we 
present a map of the City as it appeared just before the Revolution, which gives a 
clear idea of the topography. It was drawn, as the superscription quaintly tells us, | 
“by his Excellency’s Most Obedient and Humble Servant, B. Ratzer, Lieut. in his 
Majesty’s 60th Royal American Reg.’’, then stationed on Governor’s Island. It 
was engraved, we are further informed, by ‘Thos. Kitchin, Sculpt. and Engraver 
to his late Royal Highness, the Duke of York,” etc. It is all very charming and 
delightfully reminiscent of New York as a loyal Province of his “Britannick 
Majesty” in America. 


[17] 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


This is the now famous Ratzer Map, one of the very few valuable and authentic 
maps of early New York. It shows the contour of the land through which Fifth 
Avenue was subsequently constructed—its hills and valleys, brooks and rivers, 
marshes and rivulets. These hill-and-valley days were preserved for many years 
in New York by the old “hill horses,” with their tinkling bells and clanging 
whiffletrees, stationed at intervals along the street-car lines, on the East side. 
As if to predict the coming of Fifth Avenue, on this map is shown “Inclenberg,” 
the home of Robert Murray, the site of which was later east of Fifth Avenue and 
38th Street. From this family came the name “‘ Murray Hill.” 

Down Fifth Avenue itself from 21st Street, flowed a sparkling brook, in which 
“speckled beauties of the finny tribe” could still be caught within a few years 
before our story opens. At Ninth Street this brook meandered west to the Hudson. 
A few venerable citizens still remain who recall the days of quail and duck shooting, 
over covert and thicket, where now stand stately office buildings and luxurious 
homes of commerce on New York’s most famous thoroughfare. As yet there was 
not the slightest hint of the marvelous transformation soon to come. 

But the young city was growing with giant strides. An immense tide of 
foreign immigration was setting in. The old citadels of society—Battery Place, St. 
John’s Park, Bond Street and Stuyvesant Square—feel the pressure of the advanc- 
ing hosts. Room must be had for expansion. A survey of the entire city is ordered, 
under John Randel, of whom it was said that no error was ever discovered in 
his work; and a map, based on this survey, is to be prepared by a Commission 
appointed by the Common Council. Gouverneur Morris, Simon De Witt and John 
Rutherford are named Commissioners. 

After ten years’ labor the results of this Commission’s efforts are embodied 
in what is known as the ‘“‘Commissioners’ Map’”’—the first official plan adopted 
by the city for its future growth. The map was published by William Bridges 
and was dated March 22, 1811. On it appear two parallel lines extending from 
Washington Square northward to the Harlem River, and on them for the first 
time in any document appear the significant words, FIFTH AVENUE. Our 
readers will share with us, no doubt, the pleasure we had in examining this unique 
and interesting old map, so intimately associated with the birth of our now famous 
Avenue, and will appreciate our reproduction of the original copy which we show 
on another page. 

Although title to Fifth Avenue from Art Street to 13th Street was acquired on 
August 2, 1824, the actual work of construction did not begin until the first of 
November, 1824. ‘The following are the dates when the City acquired title to the 
various sections of Fifth Avenue, as shown in the official dockets of the Bureau of 
Design, of the Office of the President of the Borough of Manhattan. 


[ 18 } 


















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































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_ THE COMMISSIONERS’ MAP, 1811 
It was this plan which determined the present layout of New York 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


Waverly’ PlacetolsthStrect a eer ee August, 1824 
L3th tor 24th tres tan cee eee ene ens May, 1830 
Zistto:42d-Strectweiwii ee eee ee eee October, 1837 
AD To QUTHSSULCelL nae, orc eene eee eee A tee 
90th: to: LOGth: Street ape eee April, 1828 
LOGtHHGOM ZOT TS Unee een eee en oe April, 1838 
124th tol 29th Stree ae ee ee April, 1838 
L30thto- bo Sebi strcet gece tet eee 2 eee May 18, 1868 
U35theto: bane Nive SN eo .. April 21, 1864 


From the north side of 120th Sei to ae errs Cee of 124th Street (where 
Mount Morris Park appears), the Avenue suffers its only interruption in its 
progress «to the end at Harlem River. 

The first section extended from Art Street (now Waverly Place) to Ninth 
Street. As will be noted in the various dates given during the construction 
period, the Avenue was not opened all at one time, nor in consecutive order. 
The causes for these disjointed operations can be found in the irregularity of the 
topography of the Island—in some stretches elevations of considerable height 
were encountered, and these for obvious reasons were temporarily avoided. 
The Commissioners, themselves, make a significant statement on this point 
in their report: 


“Tt is not improbable that considerable numbers may be collected at Harlem before the high hills 
to the Southward of it shall be built upon as a city; and it is improbable that (for centuries to come) the 
grounds North of Harlem flats will be covered with houses.” 


A large area between 23d and 34th Streets, which the city originally planned 
to leave as a park or parade ground (see map), and the Elgin Botanical Gardens, 
between 47th and 51st Streets, still in private hands, had also to be considered. 
It was consequently quite natural that the work should be undertaken as 
circumstances dictated. 

For such a lusty centenarian, the infancy of Fifth Avenue gave no indication 
of its coming splendor. mienen the street was begun in 1824, its residents were 
slow in selecting it as the future fashionable highway. The patricians of Stuyvesant 
Square and other exclusive social sections were loath to leave those pleasant regions, 
redolent of the antique past. It was nearly a quarter of a century after its opening 
that building on the Avenue gave promise of its future importance. Dickens, as 
late as 1842, gives it never a word. The directory of 1851 includes a large number 
of vacant lots between Washington and Madison Squares. But after the Civil 
War progress was immediate and on a scale of elaborate grandeur never before 
witnessed in this city, or in the country at large. 

Having seen the Avenue fairly launched on its amazing career, it will now 
be our pleasure to stroll up this Mayfair of the Western World, and recall the 
stirring events of which it has been the scene, as well as the famous men and women 
who lived there. Much of the social history of Old New York is bound up in the 
brown stone and mortar of those homes of long ago. And while we talk, we shall 
also continue our history of this famous street, which starts so appropriately from 
that noble arch erected to the memory of Washington, at the beginning of the 
Avenue. 


[ 20 } 


The Washington Arch at Night 





Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


The Mayfair of the Western World 


It is pleasant to think that the most noted Avenue in the western world starts, 
one might say, with a benediction. The old Randall farm out of which has grown 
that magnificent benefaction to old mariners—Sailors’ Snug Harbor—marks the 
formal beginning of Fifth Avenue. 

The Sailors’ Snug Harbor culminates a romance of 
the sea. The inheritance of Captain Robert Richard 
Randall, which was the nucleus of the vast Snug Harbor - 
estate, was the fruits of the exploits of his father, Captain 
Thomas Randall, freebooter and commander of the 
“Fox” privateer, notable in the pre-Revolutionary war 
between the English and French. Captain Randall’s 
services during the Revolution were warmly commended 
by Washington, and he was coxswain of the barge that 
rowed the first President to the place of inauguration. 


STREET 
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His son, Robert Richard Randall, bought what was 
known as the “‘ Minto” farm, and the story is told that 
#1 in making his will in 1801, being childless, he consulted 
: | his attorney, Alexander Hamilton, as to its disposition. 


Sa ane Hamilton, the story has it, made the oracular answer, 
““It. came from the sea—let it go back to the seay wala 
may be interesting to note that the value of the farm 
was then $25,000. It is now said to be worth twice as many millions. 

Across the street and sharing with the Randall farm the distinction of marking 
the beginning of the Avenue, is the Rhinelander property, which has remained in the 
same family up to Eighth Street for one hundred and twenty-five years. The deed, 
dated July 8, 1796, from Coll McGregor to John Rogers conveys a tract of land 
formerly part of the estate of Sir Peter Warren, founder of Greenwich Village. 
The property conveyed by this deed was contained within the approximate limits 
of the present Greenwich Avenue and a line continuing the same as far as the 
present corner of North Washington: Square and Fifth Avenue on the south, and 
Eighth Avenue on the west. 

The large brick house at the very beginning of 
the Avenue (southeast corner facing Washington 
Square) is built on Sailors’ Snug Harbor property. 
A former mayor resided there—the Honorable 
Edward Cooper, son of Peter Cooper, founder of 





SAILOR SNUG HARBOR ESTATE. 
Map of Sailors’ Snug Harbor 

















a cA ION Sa _=_ 
Cooper Union. SSS =a 
When Fifth Avenue was opened in 1824 the ay Oe ee PvE 


city stilllay far to the south. By a whimsical, though 

not unkind twist of fate, the most formal and stately avenue in the world had its 
roots in Greenwich Village—a region less formal and more Bohemian than any other 
part of town. Until late in the last century the Village was still a little hamlet way 


[ 22] 


of the Busiest Corners in Town.” Fifth Avenue and 42d Stree 


Wail, taken from the Latting Observatory. Engraved by Hill. 





t as it appeared in 1855. From a contemporary drawing 
In possession of the Museum of the City of New York 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


off in the country, to which visitors rarely came, unless with trunks and bags, 
prepared to stay at least a fortnight. Washington Square, where the Avenue 
begins, was a Potters’ Field originally and had for years interred the waifs and 
wastrels of the growing city. It had 
also been used for public execu- 
tions. . But all this unsavory pace 
was forgotten when the city took 
over the land, drained the surface 
water, filled the crevices, and covered 
it with bright green sod. A new 
fence, freshly painted, gave it an air 
of privacy; and presently the pretty 
little Park became deservedly pop- 
—m ular. It was much frequented by the 
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY . 
New Vork University as it stoodin Washington Square crack regiments for Ey arades. The 
about 1835. Morse invented the telegraph and Draper made War of 1812 was not so far distant 
the first photographs here while members of the faculty é va 
and all males were still under obli- 
gation to report each first of May, to go through the Manual of Arms and prove 
that they were ready for service at a moment’s notice. A very rare and now 
famous picture—“‘The Seventh Regiment in Washington Parade Ground’—which we 
have reproduced, is an excellent visualization of the early aspect of the beginning 
of Fifth Avenue and shows interesting statuary and tablets of historical character. 

New York University, formally opened in 1837, 
whose impressive old grey Gothic towers show in the 
background of this picture, stood on the east side of 
the Square until 1894, when it was replaced by a 
spacious modern building which houses important 
branches of the University. The main buildings of 
the University, now located on University Heights, 
are among the show places of the city and one of 
its most valid claims to distinction is its “‘Hall of 
Fame.” ‘Two of the faculty of this old University 
achieved undying fame—Professor William Draper, 
who made the first image of a human face on a 
photograph (the original plate is now in the British 
Museum) and Professor $. F. B. Morse, who suc- 
cesstully developed the telecraph, s lthicesaiduthet 
Colt, the recognized inventor of the revolver, was 
also a student here. The Faculties of succeeding 
years included other famous names. 

As we proceed up the Avenue, the first house on ; 
the right (No. 1), a large square three-story brick, is a good specimen of the 
Victorian Age of Architecture. Back in the 750s it was a famous private 
school—Miss Lucy Green’s. Among its pupils were Fanny and Jennie Jerome, 


[ 24 ] 








Old house near Fifth Avenue on 45th 
Street, about 1821 





awe by Tilajor Latticber, in the pose 
pie erat 





ath ain Bee 


shed oy Uys Houlthar 262 Srcatway: 


WHERE FirtH AVENUE BEGINS 
WASHINGTON SQUARE, AS A PARADE GROUND IN 1853 


N the original lithograph, all the faces in the picture were small photographs, so that each member 
of the Regiment could be readily identified. The building in the background is the New York 
University, now at University Heights. Statues to Garibaldi and to Holley, inventor of Bessemer 

steel, are also in the Square, and a tablet to Adam Roelantsen, first New York schoolmaster, is an 
interesting feature of the new building erected on the site of the old University. 


[25 J 


Lamecepmmmmening rt 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


daughters of the famous ‘‘Larry”’ Jerome. Jennie afterwards became Lady Ran- 
dolph Churchill, mother of the present Winston Churchill, erstwhile first Lord of 
the British Admiralty. Bayard ‘Taylor was one of the visiting tutors in Miss 
Green’s school, as were also Elihu Root, Lyman Abbott, John Fiske and John 
Bigelow. 

Subsequently No. 1 Fifth Avenue was occupied by William Butler Duncan, 
who, as a young man, was on the committee that arranged the famous ball given 


NCE OF 


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BUPBEB TOLLEITES OF IHR LADISS OF NEW YORE, AT SHR GEAND BALL GIVEN IN HONOR OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. AT TAN ACADEMY OF HUSIO FOURIUENTE SURELT, BY WLS OOMMITIER OF TEE 
Geers orssamys, ocr. 18, 1860,—8mn pag B68 zy miei : soe 


ji 


[ 26 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 





“Petroleum is King.” Origin of parading on Fifth Avenue. This slogan was adopted in competition with ‘Cotton 
1s King” at the time of the oil discoveries in Pennsylvania. A _ rare photograph about 1860. The location is about 
Seventeenth Street and Fifth Avenue 


to the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) in the old Academy, October 
12, 1860. ‘The venerable Peter Cooper was chairman of the General Committee 
of Arrangements, as may be noted from a copy of the invitation reproduced 
on this page. | 

The old-fashioned Georgian house on the northwest corner of the Avenue, 
facing the Square, was erected in 1839-1840 by William C. Rhinelander. Its archi- 
tect was Richard Upjohn, who, about the same time, was the architect of ‘Trinity 
Church. Mr. Rhinelander occupied this house for nearly forty years. Later it 
was the home of his surviv- 
ing daughter, Miss Serena _— yy 
Rhinelander, until 1914. ¢ Wes pay; Committer-of Arrangements 
Since her death, the old 7 


Laan J ef Of 
house and two others adjoin- BLES Ae e Fed — LPL: UW 


: : pees ? . 
ing have been made over into Aihegiven sy Citiyensop New Yor fe, torthe 
apartments, retaining all the Wy wey, 
Georgian features and espe- ¢ Yin, Vales } 

e . Cie 
cially the height of the old athe Seudanyjyp Masicsin Friday zweniny. 


houses. It was her nephew, | 
yore i " fay the MN fae ate We Pye eS 
William RhinelanderStewart, Me 12 of Uedtelber WSOC ab ninea clocks 


who lived at No. 17 Wash- 

ington Square, and his near 

neighbors who are to be Prince of Wales ticket 

credited with the erection of 

the beautiful Washington Arch which marks the stately beginning of the Avenue. 
The Washington Arch commemorates the Centennial of the inauguration 

of George Washington in New York City on April 30, 1789, as first President of the 


{27} 


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° Leler 4 Couper z Cfuairmunt . Md a BB. « Fit, t ocrelary! ; 





Painted by R. F. Bunner for this book 








FirtH AVENUE’S ROMANTIC START—GREENWICH VILLAGE. A BIT OF THE ARTISTS’ 


CoLony IN MacpouGALL ALLEY 


REENWICH VILLAGE is of decided aristocratic lineage and is by no means an unworthy 
sponsor for the imposing avenue to which it gives birth. Founded by Admiral Sir Peter 
Warren, whose monument stands today in Westminster Abbey among the great of England’s 

dead, it has always stood high in the affections of New Yorkers. 

Lord Fitzroy married a daughter of the Admiral’s, and he afterwards became Baron Southampton. 
Abingdon Square recalls another daughter, who became the Countess of Abingdon. 

The great Sir William Johnson, whose influence with the tribes of the Six Nations threw the balance 
of power on the side of the British during the French and Indian War, was a nephew of the Admiral’s. 
Brought out by him, the boy became a power in the new world, and was the principal figure in ending 
the French dominion in America. 

Etienne de Lancey, the Admiral’s father-in-law, became Lieutenant Governor of the Royal Province, 
and, in his term, was called upon officially to sign the Charter of Kings College, now Columbia; so, to 
a certain extent, this great University has its origin in the roots of Fifth Avenue. 

The Bible on which Washington took the oath as First President is also a Greenwich possession. 
That fine old philanthropy, the House of Refuge, was also the work of a Greenwich pastor, the Rev. 
M. Stanford. 

Here lived Tom Paine, author of “Common Sense,” which crystallized the sentiment that success- 
fully brought on the Revolution. Here, also, came Hamilton, wounded unto death in his duel with 
Burr. Richmond Hill, Burr’s home, from which he emerged on that fateful morning, was at one time 
a garden spot in Greenwich Village. Col. Jonathan Trumbull, the famous early American portrait 
painter, lived here in the same house that later was to be the home of Edgar Allan Poe. 

General Lafayette visited its famous Public School, Grove Street, No. 3, in the year that the 
opening of Fifth Avenue began. It was selected as the best example of the Public School System as 
established by the ‘‘Free School Society of New York,” says the record. And, finally, Washington 
himself, on a visit to General Morton, records in his diary that he “Walked past Mr. Williamson’s 
garden,” opposite, 


[28 } 


Lott PROVINEE: m4 
ie TFROVINGE TOWN} 





Painted by R. F. Bunner for this book 
THE PROVINCETOWN PLAYERS 


HIS now celebrated band of players may not yet rank with ‘‘Northumberland’s Men,’ the 

famous strollers to which the immortal Shakespeare belonged, but they have made valuable 

contributions to the contemporary stage. Their building is an ex-livery stable, and the seats 
are wooden benches, with not too comfortable cushions. It is another romantic background for the 
stately Avenue. 

They recently revived “Fashions,” an American play by Cora Mowatt, originally produced at the 
Park Theatre in 1845. In its day it was proclaimed in London as “the first genuine American drama.” 
The revival was a great success and ran for many months. 

When it is recalled that the beginnings of the theatre in New York City are interwoven with 
the rise of the Fifth Avenue section, as a social and literary center, it is interesting to contrast the 
plays sponsored by such organizations as the Provincetown Players with the mid-Victorian dramas 
of the nineteenth century that delighted Madison Square society. 

The old and the new ever intermingle, and it is worthy of note that experiments in the theatre 
find a sympathetic setting in the section in which Fifth Avenue had its roots. 


{29 } 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


United States. A careful research of the records justifies the belief that this is the 
only arch in the world erected by private subscription to mark a historical event. It 
was designed by Stanford White and built of white marble. The span of the arch 
is thirty feet, the height of the opening forty-seven feet and the total height seventy- 
three feet six inches. Of the original Committee of Citizens formed for its erection, 
Henry G. Marquand was chairman; Louis Fitzgerald, vice-chairman; Richard 
Watson Gilder, secretary, and William R. Stewart, treasurer. For many years the 
pedestals on the north front remained vacant. In 1913, under the chairmanship of 
William R. Stewart, a new committee of which Jacob H. Schiff was treasurer, and 
Clarence W. Bowen, secretary, was formed to raise funds to provide two marble 
groups. In May, 1916, the group on the easterly pedestal, with Washington as 
General of the Continental Army as the central figure, the work of Hermon A. 
MacNeil of New York, was put in place. ‘The westerly pedestal was filled in 
February, 1918, by a group, with Washington as President in the center, the 
work of A. Stirling Calder. 

At No. 6 lives Lispenard Stewart who has resided in that house since his birth 
in 1855. At No. 32 lived Amos F. Eno, whose father built the Fifth Avenue Hotel. 
Mr. Eno left a large bequest to Columbia University. Henry Bergh, who founded 
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, lived at No. 17. This insti- 
tution has adhered to its program since its inception, and its work has become a 
model for similar philanthropies throughout the whole country. 

At the southeast corner of the Avenue and Eighth Street stands the 
old residence of John ‘Taylor Johnston, probably the first marble dwelling 
house in the city of brownstones. Mr. Johnston’s house was so famous that 
groups of trippers from the country, so it is said, stood in front of it with 
mouths agape, staring at its splendor. ‘The house was completed in 1855. 

Back of the house was Mr. Johnston’s stable, the upper story of which he 
converted into an art gallery in 1860. 
Later on it was enlarged by construct- 
ing a second gallery on the adjacent 
stable to the west. This was the first 
art gallery of any importance, public or 
private, in the City of New York. And 
it was the first art gallery ever| freely 
opened to visitors. Admission was by 
card on Thursdays. Cards were freely 
distributed through Mr. Johnston and 
several of his friends to all applicants. 
It was Mr. Johnston’s gallery that un- 
i fate a eee § doubtedly created to a large extent 

Brevoort Hotel, Fifth Avenue and Eighth Street the desire fora larger and more public 
institution of this kind which was afterwards realized in the formation of the 
present Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1870, with Mr. Johnston as its first 
president. Every year Mr. Johnston gave an artists’ reception in his galleries to 


[ 30} 





Fifth Avenue — Old and New 

























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































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Henry Bergh’s great work for the prevention of cruelty to animals may not quite seem so important in this automobile age. Fifty 
years ago this story was different. Mr. Bergh is the figure in the “plug” hat at left. From a sketch in Harper's Weekly, 1878 


which all artists of any standing in the city were invited and at this artists’ 
reception was always served the famous punch which Charles Astor Bristed 
celebrated in song. Mr. Aspinwall, Mr. Belmont, Mr. Vanderbilt, Mr. Stewart 
and others later on followed Mr. Johnston’s example in making collections of 
pictures. 

Among the more important pictures in Mr. Johnston’s collection was Frederick 
E. Church’s “ Niagara,” now in the Corcoran Gallery at Washington, and Turner’s 
“Slave Ship,” now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, as well as Winslow Homer’s 
*“Prisoners from the Front,’? now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New 
York. Mr. Johnston’s collection unfortunately was dispersed in 1877. It con- 
tained excellent examples of the modern American and French schools. 

In the next block at No. 14, Isaac M. Singer, who had just commenced the 
introduction of sewing machines, lived in 1860, and more recently the genial 
humorist, Mark Twain, had his home there for many years. General Daniel E. 
Sickles, one of the heroes of Gettysburg and a picturesque figure in the seventies 
and later, was a near neighbor. 


[31] 





DELMoNICcO’s, AT FirtH AVENUE AND 14TH STREET, 1858, NORTHEAST CORNER, 
FORMERLY THE GRINNELL MANSION 


T is difficult for the present generation to realize the former importance, socially and commercially, 
of the families engaged in shipping. Practically all of the great fortunes prior to the Civil War 
were made in shipping. Grinnell, Minturn & Co. were among the largest. They owned a great 

fleet of sailing ships trading to all parts of the world. The ‘Flying Cloud” was one of their most 
famous. It held the record for the run to California in the “Gold Rush” period—less than ninety days. 
It was one of the crack clippers built by that great ship builder, Donald Mackay. 

Mr. Grinnell was a public-spirited citizen, a founder of the Union League Club and of the 
American Geographical Society. His brother was no less famous, organizing the relief expedition to 
search for Sir John Franklin. Grinnell Land in the arctic is named after them. On page 42 we have 
described the career of Delmonico’s while occupying tHis house. 


[32 } 





THE SPINGLER FARM, AT FIFTH AVENUE AND 14TH STREET 


HIS picture shows the farmhouse, from a painting made in 1848, of the second home of the 
Spinglers and was located where the Van Beuren house now stands on 14th Street, built by 
Mrs. Mary S. Van Beuren, a granddaughter and principal heir. For years this old house retained 
its farm-like atmosphere with vegetable garden, cows and chickens. It was said to be the most expensive 
pasture land known to agriculture. The original farmhouse stood back about 375 feet from the Avenue. 


[ 33 } 


st 





Fifth Avenue — Old and New 





Fifth Avenue’s Early Tributaries. The Boston Post Road running through Union Square to Madison, connecting with Fifth 

Avenue, then called the Middle Road to distinguish it from the Albany Post Road (west) and the Boston Post Road (east). 

The building in center, erected by an important bank during great yellow fever scourge (1822), would be corner Broadway and 
17th Street to-day 


i 


Union Square Thirty Ycars Later (1853). From a contemporary drawing by Bornet, hitherto unpublished. Collection New 
York Historical Society 


[ 34] 





Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


At No. 24, corner Eighth Street, still stands the house built by Henry Brevoort 
from plans by the celebrated architect of that day, A. J. Davis, who designed 
the Sub-Treasury in Wall Street. It passed into the possession of the de Rham 
family in 1850, but has again 
come into the possession of the 
original owners through Mrs. 
George [. Baker, Jr., a descend- 
ant of the Brevoorts. Our photo- 
graph of this house is also of 
particular interest, as it was 
taken by Professor Moore of 
Columbia College about 1842 or 
ietjee lt was printed on, “salt 
paper,” the first known method 
of taking photographs, and is un- 
doubtedly the earliest outdoor 
photograph ever taken in New | 93 
York; we are indebted to Seu 


© : Old Brevoort Veen Fifth Avenue and Ninth Street, 1850. From 
Columbia College Libra ry for a photo by Prof. Moore, Columbia University, taken in 1848 
this unique item. 


This old house was also the scene of an event that caused a profound sensation 
in New York society in the forties. The second “‘masked ball” ever given in New 
York was held here. This form of entertainment had hitherto been exclusively a 
foreign function. Among the guests, Miss Matilda Barclay, the charming daughter 
of the British Consul, in domino and mask, appeared as Lalla Rookh. Came also, 
Captain Burgwyne, a young gallant from the South, with cap and bells and cockle 
shells aglistening all in a row. In spite of parental opposition the young couple 
were secretly engaged. At four o’clock, without changing their costumes, they 
contrived to secure a clergyman and were married before breakfast. When the 
news transpired, society was shocked. Forthwith, masked balls were placed under 
the ban, and suffered an eclipse for several years. 

Across the street is the famous hotel named after the old farm—the Brevoort 
House, opened in the second half of the nineteenth century. It was for years the 
favorite stopping place of all the English tourists, who avoided Broadway on 
account of the Indians, who, they were told, roamed this thoroughfare. The 
Captains of the Atlantic Liners were said to be largely responsible for the popu- 
larity of the Brevoort among this class, and the frequency of their presence as guests 
lent color to the story. It still remains a popular house. Adjoining the Brevoort 
lived “Ik Marvel” when he wrote his now celebrated “‘Reveries of a Bachelor,” 
while living in Mrs. Ludlow’s boarding house. 

There are two notable churches at this point—the Church of the Ascen- 
sion, corner of Tenth Street, and the old First Presbyterian Church, 
extending from 11th to 12th Streets. The latter is where President Tyler 
married Julia Gardner, June 26, 1844—the first time a Chief Executive was 


[ 35 ] 







Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


married while holding office. Both churches occupy block fronts, and are richly 
endowed. 
For more than a century, Grace Church has been interwoven with the life 
of New York; its history and ideals are part of the historic fabric of Fifth Avenue. 
Some of the families who lived on Fifth Avenue in the ’70s were: 


1—Miss Frances A. Graham’s school for girls (she succeeded Miss Lucy M. 
Green); 37—-Grosvenor House, northeast corner of 10th Street; 39—George N. 
Miller; 41—Mrs. David S. Kennedy; 47—Mrs. Lead Hawley; 49—William W. 
Parkin; 51—Eli White; 53—James Lenox; 55—John Fishbee Sheafe; 57—Dr. 
James Lenox Banks; 81—John Brooks; Daniel Parish, southeast corner of 16th 
Street; 87—Dr. Robert G. Remsen; 99—Robert Lenox: Kennedy; Fifth Avenue 
Church (Dr. John Hall), southeast corner of 19th Street, afterwards moved to 55th 
Street and Fifth Avenue. 


6—Lispenard Stewart; 8—John Taylor Johnston; The Berkeley, south- 
west corner of 9th Street; 24—Henry C. de Rham, northwest corner of 9th Street; 
32—J. H. Gautier, southwest corner of 10th Street; 44—Henry R. Remsen; 
46—Aaron B. Belknap; 60—Robert M. Minturn, northwest corner of 12th Street; 
62—Charles M. Talbot; 66—Dr. Gunning S. Bedford; 90—Arthur Leary; 100— 
William H. Gebhard; 102—Mrs. John Q. Aymar; Neyer Corse; 106—Peter 
Hayden; Hip Rober Winthrop; 128—Gordon W. Burnham. ~ 


When the First Presbyterian Church moved from Wall Street to Fifth Avenue 
and 12th Street, James Lenox moved, in 1846, from his residence (formerly his 
father’s, Robert Lenox), 59 Broadway, to his new residence on the N. E. corner 


of 12th Street (No. 53). 


In the same year his brothers-in-law moved to their new residences on the 
Avenue—William Banks from 16 State Street to the N. W. corner of 13th Street 
(No. 72); James Donaldson to the N. E. corner of 11th Street; David S. Kennedy 
to the S. E. corner of 11th Street. Later another brother-in-law, John Fisher 
Sheafe, moved to 55 Fifth Avenue, next to Mr. Lenox. In the early 60s Dr. James 
Lenox Banks moved to 57 Fifth Avenue. 


Until about a year or so ago, property on the Avenue below 12th Street re- 
mained in the hands of old families who refused to part with their early homes. A 
few deaths, however, have served to start the inevitable change, and already half 
a dozen homesteads have disappeared and luxurious apartment houses have been 
constructed on these sites. Contrary to the general expectation, this new develop- 
ment has not altered fundamentally the residential character of this section. For 
once business has been diverted and has skipped all the territory from the Square 
to beyond 12th Street, due to the fact that Sailors’ Snug Harbor property cannot 
be sold; yet in this neighborhood the blocks that house the older publishing firms 
have undergone commercial development. As we approach 13th Street we come 
to the Spingler farm, pictured on page 33. 


[ 36 } 


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Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


The Spingler farm was originally part of Elias Brevoort’s farm on Fifth 
Avenue about 14th Street. Brevoort sold it in 1762 to John Smith, a wealthy 
slave owner of New York, who built his country residence upon it. In 1788, 
this estate was sold to Henry Spingler for about $4,750. Our picture shows 
this house as it appeared about 1848, standing west of Fifth Avenue. Spingler 
built another house on ‘“‘the hill,” but the land was taken by the City for Union 
Park (Square). His widow returned to this old house and lived in it until her 
death. It was finally demolished to make room for the Van Beuren house, built by 
Mrs. Mary S. Van Beuren, Spingler’s granddaughter and his principal heir. To this 





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a. SASS SQUARE, 
“BROADWAY bet veen. Fourteenth and Fifteenth | St 





The Spingler House, on Union Square. From a rare lithograph in the collection of Robert Goelet 


[ 38 } 


fifth Avenue — Old and New 


bs 4 





Residence of William M. Halstead, northwest corner Fifth Avenue and 14th Street, about 1835. It was afterwards 
altered and became successively Old Guard Armory, Midget Hall and Brewsters’ Hall. One 
of the first houses on the Avenue 


day the Van Beuren place has a bucolic atmosphere, and until recently had vegetable 
and flower gardens, cows, chickens and barns, and all the appurtenances of a farm 
house. ‘The cows grazed on the most expensive pasture yet recorded. 

At 14th Street we reach the northern boundary of Greenwich Village. Here 
begins a complete transformation in the character of the Avenue. Residences com- 
pletely disappear and business begins. 

On the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 14th Street, as shown in our 
rare photograph, stood the home of William M. Halstead, founder of the old dry 
goods firm of Halstead, Haines & Co., and occupied by him as his residence until 
his death. His children lived in the adjoining three houses on Fifth Avenue 
which he built for them—Mrs. John Kirtland Meyers in the first house, William 
M> Halstead; Jr.,.in the next; Dro Thaddeus M. Halsteadiin the third) Mr: 
William M. Halstead was the father of Mrs. John T. Terry, Mrs. S. Oakley 
Vanderpoel, Dr. WilliamS. Halstead (the famous surgeon of Johns Hopkins Hospital, 


[ 39] 





BREWSTER’S HALL, N. W. CorNER FIFTH AVENUE AND 14TH STREET, ABOUT 1865 


HIS is the old Halstead House on page 39 as it appeared after alterations were made. This, 
later, became Midget Hall, and in the late 90s was occupied by Gregg Furniture Co. It is 
now a large office building. 


[ 40} 





Drawn from a rare photo in possession New York Historical Society 


Looxinc SouTH ON FIFTH AVENUE FROM 22D STREET, 1870 


HIS view taken in the ’70s shows the Union Club at right and the South Dutch Reformed Church, 

Rev. Roderick Terry, at 21st Street. On the corner of 20th is the residence of R. L. Stuart, 

now the site of the Presbyterian building. Opposite, on the block below, stood the famous 
Dr. John Hall’s Fifth Avenue Church. In the distance are seen the spires of the Church of the Ascen- 
sion (10th Street), (Dr. John Cotton Smith), and the First Presbyterian (12th Street), (Dr. William M. 
Paxton), all noted divines in their day. This particular section at that time may be conceded to have 
been the most important, socially, on the Avenue. 


[41] 





Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


Baltimore) and Richard H. Halstead, a prominent figure in Wall Street in the 
90s. This corner afterward became the Armory of the Old Guard, that picturesque 
organization of veterans. 

On the northeast corner stood the house of Moses H. Grinnell, a famous 
shipping merchant. In the late ’60s Delmonico took over this fine old mansion 
and thus confirmed the supremacy of the new social center. Its ballrooms and 
dining rooms were the scenes of countless gatherings of wealth and fashion. The 
Assembly Ball was only one of its more special events. Nightly the building was 
filled with beautifully dressed women and men of national celebrity. It was said 
that no man ever attained eminence in the town who did not later pass through 
the portals of this world-famous establishment. It was here also that the 
**Patriarchs’’? was founded in 1872, as a sort of American ““Almacks,’”’andsas 
they represented the cream of polite society of their day, their names are interesting: 


J. J. Astor F. G. D’HAUTEVILLE Joun W. HamMMERSLEY 
Gro. HENRY WARREN R. E. Livincston RoyaL PHELPS 

De Lancy KANE, Jr. THEODORE ROOSEVELT FREDERICK SHELDON 
Wm. Butter DUNCAN C. H. REMSEN Lewis M. RUTHERFORD 
Lewis CoLrorD JONES Levi P. Morton Wa. C. SCHERMERHORN 
B. J. WELLEs , ALEX. VAN RENSSELAER Francis B. Rives 
Epwin A. Post WILLIAM ASTOR J. Aucustus HAMILTON 
A. GRACIE KING Warp MCALLISTER C. C. GooDHUE 
RoBeERT G. REMSEN EuGENE A. LIVINGSTON MatTurIn LIVINGSTON 
W. R. TRAVERS E. TEMPLETON SNELLING CHARLES DE RHAM 
Isaac BELL WALTER LANGDON 


Delmonico’s was started on William Street by two Swiss brothers, who opened 
a coffee, cake and confectionery room. ‘The portico of this William Street house, 
we might say in passing, was taken from the ruins of Pompeii. Among other 
novelties the brothers introduced a female cashier, regarded as an example of the 
“new fangled ideas of these Frenemes 
but which nevertheless was a most 
popular attraction. Joined then by a 
nephew, Lorenzo, first of the notable 
spirits of a notable family, its cuisine 
rapidly attained reputation among the 
business men. Philip Hone in his diary 
refers to it indifferently; but Albert 
Gallatin,.Secretary of the, Ireasumaien 
twelve years, who might have been 
President had he not been a Swiss, 
gave his compatriots the benefit of his 
frequent patronage. 

Among the notable dinners given 
at this Fifth Avenue house was the one in honor of Professor Morse. In the 
grand ballroom there was a connection made with the first cable to Europe, and 
Professor Morse telegraphed the first cablegram from his table. In forty minutes 


[ 42] 





Ee saith 
@Scribner’s 


Entrance to Old Manhattan Club 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 
















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































i 















































Al) 


He) 












































Fifth Avenue and 14th Street, 1853. View looking east on 14th, from the Avenue. (From Valentine’s Manual.) 
The west wall facing Fifth Avenue is still the same today (1924) except for the store alteration 


an answer came back and, followed by tremendous applause, was read to 350 
guests. Fifth Avenue is thus identified with another of the most important events 
in the City’s commerce—the Atlantic Cable—as it is with its Art. 

Delmonico remained in this location until the ‘rapid extension of the 
Avenue after the Civil War induced him to remove, in 1876, to the more 
luxurious building at Fifth Avenue and 26th Street, still fresh in the memory 
of many readers. | 

On the southwest corner of 15th Street stood the Manhattan Club, the 
home of the ‘“‘Swallow-tail Democracy.”’ The plan for its organization was first 
broached in 1864, and the first meeting of the Managing Committee was at 
Delmonico’s on July 18, 1865. A committee was appointed to secure a 
permanent home for the club. They purchased the old Parker or Benkard 
Mansion at Fifth Avenue and 15th Street for $110,000, a sum of great con- 
temporaneous import. The club was always famous for its kitchen. The late 
Colonel Henry Watterson, one of its most picturesque members, said of it: 


[ 43 ] 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


“With the Union Club and the Union League—its contemporaries—and the 
Century—its senior—the Manhattan Club links the life of primitive old New York 


with that of the wondrous great Metropolis.” 





Se. 





Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, roth Street and 
Fifth Avenue, adjoining Belmont House, about r8So 


Its first president was John Van 
Boren, son vol President Van buren. soa 
Ward,'Joe* Jefferson, W. J. Florence, =Oaky ~ 
Hall, Dion Boucicault and Commodore Van- 
derbilt used to foregather there. The club 
remained in its Fifth Avenue home until 
1890, when it migrated to the Stewart Man- 
sion, at 34th Street. 

Another famous club which originated 
in the Fifth Avenue zone is “The Lambs.] 
The parent Lambs had its origin in London 
in 1869, when John Hare, Talbot Smith and 
Charles Collette gathered a dozen convivial 
friends and started a dinner club. Among 
others of the founders was Harry Montague, 
who, having been called professionally to 
America in 1874, established the New York 
Lambs. Their first meeting place, in 1877, 
was the Maison Doree Hotel, where they 
occupied one room for suppers. 


On the southeast corner of 15th Street and Fifth Avenue stood the New 
York Club, while on the northeast corner of the block above was the home 


of Levi P. Morton, banker, who 
succeeded to the high honors of 
Governor of New York State and 
Vice-President of the United 
States. On the northeast cor- 
ner of 16th Street stood the 
old Lorillard Spencer Mansion, 
originally the Gardner G. How- 
land house. On the northeast 
corner of 18th Street was the 
splendid mansion and art gallery 
of August Belmont, New York 
representative of the Roths- 
childs. The Belmont mansion 
was one of the centers of social 
life. Among the first of the large 
entertainments given here was 












Sls SAO SMa 


Lorillard Spencer House, 16th Street and Fifth Avenue, about 1875 


the reception to the Japanese Envoys. This took place immediately after the 
ports of Japan had been opened to the commerce of the world, through the 


efforts of Commodore Matthew Galbraith Perry, father of Mrs. Belmont. 


Prior 


[44] 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 





ise 


The Belmont houses, Fifth Avenue and 18th Street, 1880 
























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































ie iva ita 




















The New York Hospital on its original location, Broadway, between Worth and Duane Streets. Now a near neighbor of Fifth Avenue 
on 16th Street. Established by Royal Charter, 1771. Opened in 1791 


[ 45 } 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 











A famous landmark in Old Union Square in the ’8os 


to this, Japan had been known as the Hermit Kingdom, and had no trade with 
foreign nations. In acknowledgment of his inestimable services, the United States 
Government presented the Commodore with a silver-plate service of great elegance 
and value. It was used in the Belmont 
house on great occasions. 

Glancing down 16th Street, a few 
doors from Fifth Avenue is another in- 
stitution rich in historic interest—the 
Society of the New York Hospital— 
which was created by a Royal Charter, 
June 13, °1771. ‘Its history Wisseaaees 
sense, the history of the city since the 
Revolution. Its original home was on 
the westerly side of Broadway, op- 
posite Pearl Street, and it received its 

Soe = first patients January 3, 1/Olseeeon 
Fave Ole “many years it continued to be the only 
hospital in the City of New York, 

and, in addition to affording relief to the sick poor of the city, it became a 
famous center of medical instruction. On March 16, 1877, it moved into its 
present spacious quarters. The list of its governors, since its foundation, is a 


[46 } 


1 





Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


roster of social distinction and eminent public service, including, as it does, the 
names of John Jacob Astor, William Bayard, Aaron Burr, James W. Beekman, 
Robert C. Cornell, James Duane, Philip Hone, Abram 8. Hewitt, John Jay, James 
Kent, Edward King, Lindley Murray, Charles E. Strong, Frederick D. Tappen, 
Richard Varick and Samuel Willets. 

It is only a few years since the section which now occupies our attention was 
called the Paternoster Row of New York, because of the number of publishing 





= ee Ate 
> ee Sk 
aa ~SSel rashes 


Old Chickering Hall. An important musical center in the ’7os and ’Sos. Corner Fifth Avenue and 18th Street 


[47 } 





Trottinc DAys ON THE AVENUE, HARLEM LaANe, ABout 1870 


EPARATE and distinct from the race-track was the old-time custom of trotting. Fifth Avenue, 
any pleasant afternoon, was filled with crack trotters on the way to a spin up Harlem Lane and 
out toward Jerome Park. The number of men in all ranks of life who were enthusiastic lovers 

of horse-flesh was surprising. It was by no means confined merely to the rich, although their names 
were most frequently in the papers. But all classes were represented. The butcher boy on the Bowery, 
who, by the way, drove a very swanky “‘cart” and at dangerous speed, as well as the Wall Street broker, 
all had something in common when it came to horses. 

Along in the afternoon hundreds of turnouts would be seen going up the Avenue and turning into 

the Park for a spin to Harlem, and many were the impromptu brushes on the road. 

No motor car can ever inspire the love an old-time driver had for his trotter. Even the names 

of trainers, like Budd Doble, were household words. 


[48] 





TWENTY-THIRD STREET IN THE 7508S 


UR picture shows a rather important residence of its time, the home of the father of Mayor 
Tiemann. It stood almost where Madison Avenue begins. The towers in the background 


belong to the church presided over by the famous Dr. Crosby at the corner of 22d Street and 
Fourth Avenue. 


[49] 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


® 


houses that lined it. At Nos. 150 and 156 Fifth Avenue are buildings devoted to 
sacred literature and related subjects. This region was long the home of many of 
the churches that were built in the middle of the last century, among them the 

South Dutch Reformed Church, 
; | * erected in 1850, at the south- 
bes west corner of 21st Street, and 
the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian 
Church at 19th Street.” Inteve 
latter street, just east of the 
Avenue, was the former home of 
Horace Greeley, and imgezG7@ 
Street (No. 28) TheedGre 
Roosevelt was born. 

One of the fine mansions of 
this section was that of Marshall 
O. Roberts, on the southeast cor- 
ner of 18th Street, which gloried 

St. Germain Hotel, corner Fifth Avenue and 22d Street, Flatiron site in the possession of the enor- 

mous canvas, ‘‘Washington 

Crossing the Delaware.” This famous painting was later acquired by John S. 
Kennedy, and it is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

On the northwest corner of 18th Street was Chickering Hall, which, during 
the twenty-five years of its existence, was one of the most potent factors in 
making the musical history of 
New York. In that hall world- 
famous paltistssmade  Licit 
American début, including 
Hans Von Bulow, Anton Seidl, 
Vladimir de Pachman, Ratael 
Joseffy. Among the great liter- 
ary figures which edified and 
entertained audiences in this 
hall may be mentioned the names 
of Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain 
and Matthew Arnold. On his 
return home, Matthew Arnold 
told his mother that the Ameri- 
can reporters had said that he 
was conceited, and that his 





b) 





= Site of present Flatiron Building, when the corner was known 
clothes didn’t fit. .“° They were as the “Cow Catcher” 


Wrong) aboUtemthemclories: 
Matthew,” observed the old lady, with a demure twinkle in her eye. 

In the houses that preceded Chickering Hall lived the Countess Leary and her 
brother, and Samuel P. Avery, then a wood engraver, who was afterward to become 


[ 50} 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


the noted art dealer, with such substantial clients as William H. Vanderbilt’ and 
J. Pierpont Morgan. 

In this immediate neighborhood (20th to 22d Street) lived Peter Marie, 
5. F. B. Morse, W. Loring Andrews, Edward Clark of Singer Sewing Machine 
fame, J.S. C. Abbott, brother of Lyman and author of the famous “ Rollo” books, 
Henry C. Sturgis, whose sister married J. Pierpont Morgan, and Martha J. Lamb, 
author of the well-known History of New York. 

As the nineteenth century passed its midway mark, clubs began to penetrate 
the Fifth Avenue residential section. One of the first was the Union Club, founded 
in 1836, with No. 1 Bond Street asits first home. In 1847 it shifted to Broadway and 
Fourth Street, and in 1854 the land at the 21st Street corner was secured. The 
following year the club moved into its new Fifth Avenue building, which was the 
first in New York erected exclusively for club purposes. From the day the Union 
Club first opened its doors it was one of the wealthiest and most exclusive of New 
York clubs, and the names of its organizers are names associated with the history 
patvercity. Philip Hone, of the celebrated “ Diary”’; “Thomas P. Oakley, Samuel 
Nenec beverly Robinson, W. B. Lawrence, Charles King, E. T. Throop and J. 
Depeyster Ogden. 

Among the earliest clubs which defined the character of the streets 
passed in review may be mentioned The Athenzum, established in 1859 at the 
southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 16th Street; The Lotus Club, which had 
its quarters at No. 147 Fifth Avenue, and which was organized “To promote 
social intercourse among journalists, literary men, artists, and members of the 
theatrical profession”; The Travelers’ Club, at 18th Street and Fifth Avenue, 
occupied the commodious residence which belonged to Gordon W. Burnham. 
Founded in 1865, the object of The Travelers’ Club was “‘to bring together travelers 
of all nations, and to do honor to distinguished men who were visiting the United 
States.”” Between 19th and 20th Streets, at No. 146 Fifth Avenue, was the Arca- 
dian Club, an organization which for a time contested the particular field of its 
rival, The Lotus. The Knickerbocker Club, organized in 1871 by the descendants 
of the first settlers of New York, bought from William Butler Duncan his home 
on the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 28th Street, ing) the Calumet took 
the 29th Street corner above. : 









































: : oY, @©Seribner ieeaieare eet 
Oe iahoer Club, Pifth Fase Gd 28th Street The Calumet Club, Fifth Avenue, corner 29th Street 


[51] 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 








~ = 


Oe Ps cack : Shs 14" RW Ah AEG Rute: a 5 : 

When the English sparrows were first imported, the city built bird houses for them in public places. This shows 
the one in Madison Square. These bird houses had special names—‘‘City Hall,” “ Battery,” 

“Central Park,” etc. (1859) 


On the lower half of what is now the “Flatiron” building stood for many 
years the Hotel St. Germain. The apex of this island lot was so narrow that 
only small buildings could be erected on what was once the garden of the St. 
Germain, and this section was known as the ‘“‘Cow Catcher.” A railroad 
office and some nondescript shops occupied this small area prior to the advent 
of the Flatiron. The “Cow Catcher’? remains, however, and is today occupied 
as a cigar store. "The block on the opposite side retained its residential charac- 
ter till late in the 80s. The erection of a business building at the corner of 23d 
Street, on the site of the old Eugene Higgins’ residence, brings us up to the 
junction of Fifth Avenue, Broadway, 23d Street and Madison Square, the end- 
ing of the second section in the building of the Avenue. 

Let us pause a moment to look from Fifth Avenue on the then fine shopping 
thoroughfare of 23d Street. A row of great white emporiums, and on the north 
side the handsome French Renaissance building, ““Eden Musee,” our local imita- 
tion of Mme. Tussaud’s Wax Works. Nothing so delighted our country cousins 
as a visit to this fascinating establishment to play chess and checkers with Ajeeb, 
an automatic player supposed to be invincible, and to visit its ‘Chamber of Hor- 
rors.” Amass of gay femininity rustled through this street, on the way to and from 
the other great shops on Broadway. ‘This was the then famous “‘Ladies’ Mile,” 
and extended south to Eighth Street. It was the immediate predecessor of the 
present Fifth Avenue shopping district. ‘The enormous bustles, balloon sleeves, 
small hats and tight waists are curious contrasts to the styles of our day. 


[ 52} 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 





Christopher Mildeberger’s farmhouse facing the Bloomingdale Road at Fifth Avenue and 23d Street, 1839, before the avenue 

was cut through. This house became Colonel Thompson’s Madison Cottage, a famous roadhouse, 1839 to 1850. .Franconi’s 

Hippodrome succeeded the roadhouse; then came the old Fifth Avenue Hotel. The Fifth Avenue Building now occt *tes the site. 
From a hitherto unpublished drawing (about 1830) in the possession of the New York Historical Society 


Madison Square 


When Fifth Avenue was cut through in 1837, the Horn farmhouse, occupied 
by Matthew Horn’s daughter and son-in-law (the Christopher Mildeberger referred 
to above) was temporarily left in the middle of the street. In November, 1839, 
it was removed to the corner where the Fifth Avenue Building now stands and was 
leased to a Colonel Thompson, who converted the old building into a roadhouse, 
which for many years was popularly known as the Madison Cottage. A small 
“Isle of Safety,’ which some of our readers may recall, stood on this location for 
many years. It is said to have been all that remained of the ground on which 
the old farmhouse stood. 

The Madison Cottage, therefore, was the old Horn farmhouse adapted to its 
new career. Chroniclers tell of “The Sign of the Buck Horn,” a huge pair of antlers 
which announced the favorite meeting place of riders and drivers in the 40s. 
The business card of the Cottage carried the announcement that stages “‘leave 
every four minutes.”’ A genial historian of that period, Abram Payton, describes 
this post tavern as “The last stopping place for codgers, old and young. Laverty 


[ 53} 


Lifth Avenue — Old and New 


and Niblo, Sol Kipp and Nat Blount, the 
Costers, the Whitneys and the Schermer- 
horns would here end their day with the 
worthy Colonel.” 

After a brief but colorful” career, 
Madison Cottage was torn down early in 
1853 to make room for a.circus known 
as Franconi’s Hippodrome, which opened 
its doors on May 2d of that year. This 
Hippodrome was built by a syndicate of 
American showmen and presented an odd 
architectural combination of tent roof 
and permanent wall. It was two stories 
high and seven hundred feet in circumfer- 
ence. In the center was a great oval ring 
two hundred feet wide and three hun- 
dred feet long, with a seating capacity 
for six thousand people and standing room 
for half as many more. ‘The boldness of 
the venture won for it immediate success, 


[ 54] 











RULES 
OF THIS TAVERN |} 





Four pence a night for Bed 
Six pence with Supper 


No more than five to sleep 
in one bed : 


No Boots to be worn in bad 


Organ Grinders to sleep in 
the Wash house 


No dogs allowed upstairs’ 


No Beer allowed in the 
Kitchen 


No Razor Grinders orTinkers 


taken in 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 





The first picture of the Fifth Avenue Hotel as completed (1858), and then known as “ Eno’s Folly.’ Erected 
on the site of Colonel Thompson’s roadhouse 


but when the novelty had worn off, and after two years of steady losses, the enter- 
prise had to be abandoned. 

Amos R. Eno bought the property for the purpose of building a hotel, which 
would far surpass anything the city had known hitherto and which would become 
one of the famous hotels of the world. Many critics scouted the idea that a loca- 
tion so far uptown could be found practical, but the sturdy New Englander went 
ahead with his plan and the Hippodrome building was torn down. The new 
structure was completed in September, 1859, when the Fifth Avenue Hotel opened 
its doors under the direction of Colonel Paran Stevens. Because of the conspicuous 
role which the Fifth Avenue Hotel played for half a century in the social and 
political life of New York, extended record will be given here of its activities; 
but, before entering upon a description of its career, it is proper to narrate the 
development of this section which culminated in the founding of Madison 
Square. 

It will be observed through a study of the Commissioner’s map of 1811 that 
there was to be no Fifth Avenue between 23d Street and 34th Street; the Avenue 
was marked to terminate at 23d Street, and to resume its march eleven blocks 
farther north. Thus the Parade Ground, extending from 23d to 34th Street, was 
largely common land belonging to the city. An old United States arsenal held 
the lower end; to the northeast was a Potters’ Field; to the west was the land of 
General Theodorus Bailey, the City Postmaster; while at the north stood the farm 
of Caspar Samler. In 1823 the arsenal was abandoned, and a year later the 


[55] 





MADISON SQUARE IN THE ’80S 


OME idea of the great destruction among the large trees that formerly adorned Madison Square 
may be gained by a comparison of this picture with its present appearance. Gas, electric light, 
subways and air-tight concrete sidewalks have about finished the sturdy old oaks, elms 

and sycamores. 


[ 56} 





Firth AVENUE AND TWENTY-SIXTH STREET—THE HOTEL BRUNSWICK 


OR many years the old Brunswick was the headquarters of the ‘‘horsey”’ element in society. The 

Coaching Club was near by—at 319 Fifth Avenue. Col. deLancey Kane, Col. Lawrence Kip, and 

T. Suffern Tailer headed the Coaching coterie. Four-in-Hands, Tandems, etc., started here for 

the run up to New Rochelle. They created a sensation going up the Avenue, with their natty 

Club suits of forest green with brass buttons, and the guard sounding the coach horn from the rear 
seat. During Horse Show week it was resplendent in blue and yellow. 

The cuisine of the Brunswick was famous for its bird and game dinners, its rare vintages, and other 
super-edibles. Patrons of the Meadowbrook, Jerome Park and Monmouth Park Clubs, together with 
many titled visitors from abroad, combined to keep the Brunswick a prime favorite with an exclusive 
circle. It cultivated a decidedly British atmosphere and lived an autocratic existence, in keeping with 
the dignity of its name. 


[57] 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


building was sold to the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents for 
six thousand dollars. yy 

In 1837 the size of the Parade Ground, then referred to as “‘a public place,” 
was reduced to the present dimensions of Madison Square (approximately seven 
acres), and in 1844 the Eastern Post Road, which traversed the square, was closed. 
The line of this road may be deduced today by the double row of trees that runs 
northeast toward Madison Square. 

Madison Square, named after President Madison, was formally opened in 
1847. The migration of society to this new center began during the mayoralty 
of James Harper. Among the names which fixed the social distinction of this 
vicinity, mention should be made of Lawrence W. Jerome, affectionately known 
as “‘Larry”’ Jerome (father of William Travers Jerome), and his elder brothers, 
Leonard and Addison G., who, with William R. Travers, formed a quartette of 
prominent bankers and social leaders. James Stokes, whose wife was a daughter 
of Anson G. Phelps, had the distinction of building the first residence on Madison 
Square, in 1851, at No. 37 Madison Square, East; John David Wolfe, whose 
daughter, Catherine Lorillard Wolfe, gave her extensive art collection to the Metro- 
politan Museum of Art; Frank Work, Henry M. Scheffelin, James L. Scheffelin, 
Samuel B. Scheffelin, were also among the first settlers. 

‘The first permanent historical memorial to be erected in this section was the 
monument to perpetuate the memory of Major William J. Worth of Mexican 
War fame. He died at San Antonio, Texas, June 7, 1849, and a month later the 
Common Council of the city appointed a committee to make arrangements for 
bringing his body to New York for burial. His remains were deposited in Green- 





Madison Square at 23d Street, showing Hoffman House and Albemarle Hotel. Parade of 7th Regiment. About 1890 


[58 ] 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 





Dedication of the Worth Monument in Madison Square, 1858. From rare lithograph in collection of Mr. Robert Goelet 


wood Cemetery, and remained there until 1854, when the Board of Aldermen recom- 
mended the erection of a suitable monument, fixing the location between Broadway 
and Fifth Avenue, south of 25th Street. This was the last interment permitted 
on corporation property. 

The Worth Monument in Madison Square is a granite obelisk, divided into 
sections by bands upon which are inscribed the names of the battles in which 
General Worth distinguished himself. A large bronze tablet shows the equestrian 
figure of General Worth in high relief. The inscription runs as follows: 


MAJOR GENERAL WORTH 
Ducit Amor Patriae 
By the Corporation of the City of New York. 1857 


HONOR THE BRAVE 


Under This Monument Lies the Body of 
WILLIAM JENKINS WORTH 
Born in Hudson, New York, March 1, 1794 
Died in Texas, May 7, 1849 


It was against this background, rich in historical and social interest, that 
the Fifth Avenue Hotel was launched on its career. 

Royal guests furnished continual gossip about the new hotel and gave it 
international publicity. The visit of the Prince of Wales in 1860 started the 
‘royal procession’’; there followed Don Pedro, the last emperor of Brazil, the 
Crown Prince of Siam and Prince Napoleon. 


[59] 








FirtH AVENUE LOOKING SOUTH FROM 31sT STREET 


ARBLE Collegiate Church, still standing, on right. Ilustration shows stoops and small 
gardens that were attached to almost every house on the Avenue. About 1903 these 
“space-takers” were shaved off by the city, to widen the Avenue. 


[ 60} 





CoRNER OF FIrtH AVENUE AND 36TH STREET, 1895 


HE solidly built-up block between 35th and 36th Streets as it appears to-day would not indicate 

that a large greenhouse stood there as recently as the 90s. The brilliant display of colors added 

a pleasing note to the otherwise dull surroundings, but the rapid growth of business swept away 
the florist and his riotous colored stock, much to the regret of the afternoon promenaders. 


1 61} 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


The visit of the Prince was no sooner ended than the dark clouds of 
the Civil War, which had been slowly gathering, broke into the storm that 
was to rage with unabated fury for the next four years. By common consent 
the new hotel became the headquarters of the forces that were organized to 
preserve the Union. The political party which represented these views very 
naturally made the hotel its headquarters: Thurlow Weed, from up state; John 
A. Dix, whose famous telegram is well remembered, “If anyone attempts to haul 
down the American flag, shoot him on the spot’; Henry Ward Beecher, 
whose eloquence was a tower of strength to the Government; E. D. Morgan, 
the famous war governor who lived on the Avenue, corner 36th Street; Moses 
H. Grinnell, leading figure in the Union League just forming; Hamilton Fish, 
Horace Greeley, Isaac Bell, Wm. M. Evarts, with dozens of other patriotic citizens 
whose names have since become household words. 

‘“‘Bill” Tweed, Daniel Drew, Jay Gould, ‘‘ Jim” Fisk, Commodore Vander- 
bilt, Henry Clews, ‘‘Larry”’ Jerome, William R. Travers, and everybody who was 
anybody on the street, gathered here nightly. It was a scene never to be forgotten, 
and, for the time being at least, the Fifth Avenue Hotel was not only a caravansary, 
but was the headquarters of all the gigantic forces, passions and animosities aroused 
by the fratricidal war. It would be difficult to imagine a more motley crew, nor 
one more widely diverse in its aims and purposes, assembled under any roof. 

To add to the excitement, rapid discoveries in oil were reported from many 
sections of the country, particularly Pennsylvania. The same scenes with which 





The New York & Harlem R. R. depot on the site of present Madison Square Garden, 1860 


[ 62 J 








[ 63} 


Two Famous Old Fifth Avenue Hotels—The Windsor, 46th Street (top) and the Buckingham (bottom) 
at 5oth Street, about 1876 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


we became familiar after the great industrial combination craze of the 90s were 
enacted, only with all the spectacular accompaniment of a greater and wider 
element of uncertainty. 

In the rooms of this hotel the plan to make Ulysses S. Grant President was 
conceived and carried out. ‘The famous speech of the Rev. Dr. Burchard, in which 
“Rum, Romanism and Rebellion” occurred, was part of the political history of 
the hotel. It cost James G. Blaine the election and brought to everlasting fame 
Grover Cleveland. 

A famous institution was the “Amen Corner.” It was so called because 
“Tom” Platt, the Republican Boss, uttered his dicta here and the hearers always 
acquiesced. It was an outgrowth of conditions prevailing at the time. Notable 
Republican chieftains would accidentally meet in the lobby and start a discussion 
of some kind. As the subject lengthened they would repair to a corner and sit 
down. In time the “corner”? began to be an appointed place for conferences, 
and, as many weighty decisions were reached at those meetings, the significance 
of the title became more and more manifest. For nearly a quarter of a century 
every prominent leader in the party 
sooner or later sat in the ““Amen Cor- 
ner.” It was here, according to the 
newspaper reports of that time, that 
Theodore Roosevelt was made the Vice- 
Presidential nominee, despite his ener- 
PeLICMpIOotest. 

The list of celebrities seen every 
day in the hotel was a long one. Edwin 
Booth, coming up from the theater on 
23d Street, was known to all. Then 
would come Samuel J. Tilden, in frock 
coat and famous plug hat; Augustus 
Schell and John Kelly, inseparable and 
yet a strange combination—they passed 
on to the Hoffman House; Henry W. 
Raymond, the brilliant editor of the 
‘*'Times,’’ with George Jones, publisher, 
— whose magnificent courage exposed the 

Visiting statesmen at the old Fifth Avenue Hotel during Tweed ring; Roscoe Conkling and his 
a political campaign, 1890 
protégé, Chester Allan Arthur, Pres- 
ident and President maker; James G. Blaine, Conkling’s implacable foe. Grant 
was a constant visitor. 

Mark Twain was a frequent visitor on his many trips from Hartford. One 
evening he purchased a number of afternoon papers, as was his wont, and was 
proceeding to the entrance with his bundle under his arm. A lady stopped 
him and asked him for a paper, tendering a nickel in payment. ‘Twain gravely 
handed her a ““Sun” and made the change. It is not recorded that Catherine 


[ 64 J 





Old and New 





fifth Avenue 


Lorillard Wolfe, who lived opposite, where the Metropolitan Life Building now 
stands, heard of the incident. She founded the Newsboys’ Lodging House, 
and might have been induced to give the genial humorist a night’s extra lodging 
free for his courtesy. 

Cyrus W. Field, builder of 
the Atlantic Cable; fine old 
Peter Cooper, New York’s First 
Citizen in his day, and founder 
Oi Cooper. nionses a William 
Cullen Bryant; the Cary sisters, 
Phoebe and Alice; Brewster, 
Picci nila veeaindt) we bole 
Dunlap; at a later date, Joseph 
F. Knapp, John R. Hegeman, 
Stewart Woodford, Cyrus H. 


K. Curtis, and scores of others 
Cyrus W. Field, Peter Cooper and his associates, founders were frequent visitors. 


| of the first Atlantic Cable Nn ae RR renee 
there was a fireplace in every room and the rate was $2.50 a day, including four 
meals. Even to the end, the extra meal—supper it was called—was included. 
Nor was an added charge made for any guest one happened to bring in. The 
hotel was your home and you were expected to have your friends visit you 
occasionally. Almost to the end the guests were seated at a long family table, 
twenty or thirty at a time. 

With the passing of this famous hostelry there disappeared from the annals 
of Old New York one of its most memorable centers. Few persons who stopped 
at the old Fifth Avenue but looked back to the experience with the liveliest satis- 
faction and the keenest enjoyment. No other hotel can possibly duplicate the 
peculiar place held by the old Fifth Avenue in the hearts of Old New Yorkers, 
nor is it desirable that it should. 








[65 ] 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


The area immediately to the rear of the Fifth Avenue Hotel on 24th Street, 
formerly the site of Brougham’s Lyceum Theater, contained the first Fifth Avenue 
Theater, managed by Augustus Daly, who succeeded Lester Wallack as theatrical 
manager extraordinary, tos INew York -society. | [hey Daly Company at. ti 
house included such celebrated names as Clara Morris, Fanny Davenport, Effie 
Germon and Sara Jewett. The house was burned down in the late ’/0s 
and rebuilt as the Madison Square by Steel Mackaye. Its ingenious equip- 
ment of a double stage, the comfort and unostentatious luxury of its 
auditorium, together with its “‘intimate” character, made it a favorite home 
of “Society Plays.” It had almost as uninterrupted a record of successes as any 
theater in the history of New York. Among these were “Hazel Kirke,”’ which ran 
over six hundred nights—phenomenal in those days—“‘Jim the Penman”’ and “‘Cap- 
tain Swift.””. Manager A. M. Palmer introduced Miss Minnie Maddern Fiske to the 
playing world there; and ““A Trip to Chinatown,” by Charles Hoyt, the George 
M. Cohan of his period, served to introduce this new genius to the theater 
loving public. | 

Another favorite “‘society’’ home was the Lyceum Theater, contiguous to the 
Academy of Design, a stone’s throw from Madison Square. ‘There Georgia 
Cayvan, Herbert Kelcey and Effie Shannon delighted the fashionables 
with the early Pinero’s “ Sweet Lavender,’ ~“ Lady ‘ Bountiful,’ sande 
Amazons,” and the young Sothern played “Lord Chumley,”) [hes wWites, 
“The Highest Bidder” and ‘‘The Charity Ball,” in some of which a young 
playwright named David 
Belasco collaborated with one 
Henry C. DeMille. 

The representations of Fifth 
Avenue interiors, in the drama, 
have been many and _ varied. 
‘The Banker’s Daughter”’ set 
the vogue for “Scene 1—In the 
Lobby of the Windsor Hotel. 
Time: The Present.’ ‘Vhe earlier 
types—“Mr. James Van Alstyne, 
a Fifth Avenue Banker”; “Hts 
Daughter, Mary”; “His Son, 
Jack”; were familiar dramatis 
persone to the playgoers of 
the = eas> “footlight sdayermOf : 
course, there was the pretty Block pad adoe between 2 3d is Dr. Parkhurst’s 
housemaid with the duster church on left. On Fourth Avenue in rear of this church 

2 was the Lyceum Theater 
who invariably opened the 
performance with: ‘‘Not home yet? What can have detained him? Ah, 
there’s the bell now.” The English butler, who furnished ‘‘comic relief”? with 
the pretty maid aforesaid, and the ingenue, who usually provided her early 


[ 66 J 


Say 











Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


audiences with one of the most convincing proofs of the alleged inferior men- 
tality of females. 

The later dramatists gained in sophistication, if not in subtlety. Mr. 
Clyde Fitch wrote a genial parody of the age of 
innocence in his “Captain Jinks of the Horse 
Marines,” in the dialogue of which the songs of the 
period were mentioned—‘Walking Down Broad- 
way,” “Tassels on Her Boots,” “‘Shoo-fly”—and in 
which he undertook to poke fun at mid-Victorian 
interior decoration; but so engrossed was he in 
retrospect that he failed entirely to take note of some 
of the “period” furnishings of his own time. The 
earlier drawing-room embellishments included 
painted coal scuttles, huge sashes of ribbon tied 
around piano legs, John Rogers’ statuary, lam- 
brequins without end, and antimacassars—a washable 
woolen tidy—to keep the well lubricated hair from 
soiling the backs of armchairs and sofas. 

SS The region once bounded by the old farm of 

RE Caspar Samler, comprising the greater part of Fifth 

District messenger boys acted as escorts to Avenue from Madison Square to 31st Street, housed 

ladies visiting the theatres in the ’gos , Een : : 

important buildings at this period of our story. At 

the northwest corner of 26th Street stood the old Brunswick Hotel, the head- 

quarters of the “‘horsey”’ element in society. Four-in-hands and tandems started 

here for the run up to New Rochelle. ‘They attracted much attention going up 

the Avenue, with their natty club suits of forest green with brass buttons and the 
guard sounding the coach horn from the rear seat. 

The cuisine of the Brunswick was famous for its bird and game dinner, and 
its rare vintages. Patrons of the Meadowbrook, Jerome Park and Monmouth 
Park Clubs, together with many titled visitors from abroad, combined to keep 
the Brunswick a prime favorite with an exclusive circle. 

The Victoria Hotel at the southwest corner of 27th Street is remembered 
primarily as the New York home of President Grover Cleveland, during his term 
of office. It was designed to imitate the architecture of the French apartment 
houses and was thus somewhat in advance of the general acceptance of this 
style by a later generation. The Marble Collegiate Church at 29th Street, and 
the Holland House at 30th Street, likewise stood on a portion of the old Samler 
farm. 

Writing of this period on the occasion of his second visit to the United States, 
Charles Dickens reported ‘‘changes moral, changes physical, changes in the 
amount of land subdued and peopled, changes in the graces and amenities 
Gtelife.’’ 

Perhaps the salon of the Cary sisters, Alice and Phoebe, helped to improve 
the art of living. A little off the Avenue, at East 20th Street, to their simple 


[ 67 } 





Fifth Avenue — Old and New 





South on Madison Avenue, from Leonard Jerome’s house, 26th Street, now home of Manhattan Club. About 1870 


brick dwelling there repaired of Sunday evenings the literary lions of the day: ° 
Whittier, Stoddard, Aldrich, Ripley, Herman Melville and Justin McCarthy— 
and occasionally old Horace Greeley. 

Another influence for the city’s prestige was the second Fifth Avenue home 
of Delmonico which invaded Madison Square in the ’70s. Occupying the entire 
block front between Fifth Avenue and Broadway on the 26th Street corner, this 
location was the most noted meeting place of celebrities in the Western Hemisphere. 
Its Fifth Avenue windows faced the Brunswick Hotel, while those on the Broad- 
way side gave a view of the St. James, a noted resort for the magnates of the 
turf. The ballroom of Delmonico’s was unique in social life. It was here that 
the famous dictum limiting New York’s social elect to 400 was first conceived. 
The ballroom capacity was about that number, and Ward McAllister, the 
Petronius of New York society, in pruning the applications for some coveted 
invitations to one of its functions, gave notice to that effect. The newspapers 
characteristically made capital of the implied shrinking of the ‘Upper Ten Thou- 
sand,’ and New York awoke to a new social oligarchy. 

Most of the city’s celebrities lived within the area of Madison Square in this 
mellow period of Manhattan’s history. ‘The house on the south side of 23d Street, 
facing Madison Avenue, was the home of the father of a former New York Mayor, 
Daniel F. Tiemann, and our picture gives a good idea of the simplicity of this 
street in that period. At the corner of Madison Avenue and 23d Street was the 
residence of S. L. M. Barlow, an eminent lawyer of his time. The Madison Square - 
Presbyterian Church had its first home on the corner of 24th Street. On the 
corner opposite stood the old brownstone dwelling of Catherine Lorillard Wolfe. 


[ 68 ] 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


PARAS 


ATTA 





Coe CR 


The Little Church Around the Corner, on 29th Street near Fifth Avenue 


When the Wolfe property was sold, an exchange was negotiated by which the 
church abandoned its old site and moved to the northern corner. This church 
was famed for its architectural beauty, and was considered the finest, as it was the 
last, example of the work of Stanford White. The building was sold to a publishing 
house in Hartford, Conn., and the church united with the first First Presbyterian 
on Fifth Avenue and 11th Street. The crusades against commercialized vice, 
personally conducted by the valiant minister of this church. Dr. Charles H. Park- 
hurst, will be remembered by many of our readers. 

Early in 1868 the Union League Club moved into the house originally built 
by Leonard Jerome at the corner of Madison Avenue and 26th Street. Afterward 
this building was occupied by the University Club and today it is the home of 
the Manhattan Club, the early history of which has been recorded elsewhere. 

It has often been observed that Madison Square is preeminently the center 
of statues of eminent men, executed by eminent sculptors. The bronze figure of 
William H. Seward is the work of Randolph Rogers. At the southeast corner of 
the Square is the statue of Roscoe Conkling, by J. Q. A. Ward. Mention should 
also be made of the drinking fountain by Emma Stebbins, presented to the city 
by Catherine Lorillard Wolfe, and the statue of Chester A. Arthur, created by Bissell. 
A figure which has attracted even wider attention is the Farragut statue, designed 
by Augustus Saint Gaudens, in collaboration with Stanford White. This monument 
is one of the rare examples of public memorials in which the base has been con- 
sidered an integral element in the fashioning of an artistic ensemble. ‘The Admiral 
is shown in his uniform, marine glasses in hand. ‘The granite pedestal is semi- 
circular with two female figures in low relief against the central pillar. When 


[ 69 } 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


the memorial was presented to the city (due chiefly to the initiative of Moses 
H. Grinnell) the statue was unveiled by John H. Knowles, the sailor who lashed 
Farragut to the mast in the battle of Mobile Bay. Joseph H. Choate delivered 
the oration of this occasion, May 25, 1881. 
The pedestal of this monument bears the following inscription: 
DAVID GLASGOW FARRAGUT 


That the memory of a daring and sagacious commander and a gentle, 
great-souled man, whose life from childhood was given to his country, 
but who served her supremely in the war for the Union, may be pre- 
served and honored, and that they who come after him and will owe 
him so much may see him as he was seen by friend and foe, his coun- 
trymen have set up this monument. 


A. D. MDCCCLXXXd 


When the early uptown movement began, the new Clubland of upper Fifth 
Avenue commenced at 27th Street’s northeast corner, where was situated the 
Reform Club (Democratic), devoted to the cause of Tariff Reform and Sound 
Money. It had for neighbors on the corresponding corners of 29th Street and 
32d Street the Calumet and Knickerbocker Clubs, respectively. ‘Their houses 
were originally private dwellings of red brick, and that of the Calumet was em- 
bowered in summer with a luxuriant foliage of ivy. The Calumet was recruited 
largely from the long waiting-list of the Union Club. The Knickerbocker, accord- 
ing to an early record, “is undoubtedly our most exclusive fashionable club. 
Mere membership is a passport to society.”” It was founded in 1871 by descend- 
ants of the original settlers of New York. 

Looking down 29th Street, a few doors from Fifth Avenue one glimpses a 
particularly interesting bit of old New York. If the “Church of the Transfigura- 
tion’? were the ideal fancy of an artist, it could scarcely be more appropriatesto 
the legend that has immortalized it as “The Little Church Around the Corner.” 
The snug little church, the parsonage and the churchyard, reposing in old-world 
peacefulness amid a new-world’s turmoil, present a graphic picture of the contrast 
of time. It is a bit of Old London set down among skyscrapers. 

No history of this phase of Fifth Avenue can be complete without reference 
to the old-time popularity of the American trotting horses—the logical forerunner 
of the Horse Show, referred to in a later paragraph. Commodore Vanderbilt, and 
later his son, William H. Vanderbilt; Robert Bonner; Frank Work; General Grant; 
Leonard Jerome; William Rockefeller, and many other enthusiasts being familiar 
figures on the Avenue. 

A social activity that annually stirred Fifth Avenue to almost carnival pitch 
was the Horse Show at the Garden. ‘This event, which was usually timed during 
the week preceding the opening of the opera, ushered in the fall and winter season 
and was signalized by a corresponding stir in fashionable shops, hotels and res- 
taurants. Window displays along the Avenue were resplendent with the official 
blue and yellow colors of the Horse Show Association. Stirrups, crops, whips, 
and other equine paraphernalia were much in evidence decoratively. Hotels and 
restaurants in the neighborhood of the Garden bloomed forth gorgeous in chrysan- 
themums and violets, the emblematic flowers. The age of automobiles cannot 


[70 } 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 











From collection J. Clarence Davies 


Fifth Avenue. The old hansoms parked in front of Madison Square 


conceive of the interest manifested in matters relating to the horse during this one 
week, learned talk about blooded stock being a favored topic of the conversation 
of persons, including those hitherto entirely uninformed regarding the subject. 
The promenade around the arena in the Garden was thronged with sightseers, not 
a few of whom were in those professional classes concerned in dress design and 
manufacture, seeking the latest “‘models”’ in the animated fashion plates in the 
boxes. Here came all New York to gaze on the great and near-great. Here 
the fourth generation of a notable family of horse-lovers—the Vanderbilts—and 
others of a more recent pedigree held forth in glory. But to the majority of the 
great crowd present the horse was of secondary importance. The newspapers 
devoted far more space to a description of gowns and frocks than to the ostensible 
business of the show—the judgment of the equine entries. 

During the ’80s the vogue of the trotting horse declined and gave way to 
English equine fashions. The four-in-hand, the tandem and the dog-cart displaced, 
in fashionable favor, the buggy and sulky. Attention was drawn from trotters 
and pacers to hackney cobs, polo ponies, hunters and other distinctively English 
types. The success of Mr. Pierre Lorrilard on the English turf, with his Derby 
winner “‘Iroquois,”’ besides the victories of his ‘‘Parole,”’ and those of Mr. James 


[71] 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


Keene’s “ Foxhall,”’ gave a stimulus to racing that filled the grandstand at Jerome 
Park with gaiety and fashion. 

In the seventies and earlier there was a line of stages that turned into Fifth 
_ Avenue at 13th Street and stopped 
finally at 42d Street. These stages 
were gaily colored and had large 
| ANN. ‘ ; be pictures on each side—pictures of 
=> ‘Saree cf Swiss landscapes; Indian fights; 

A ST a _ steamboats plowing through moun- 
tains of foam; and flying trotters. 
Some of them were said to have 
been painted by Elihu Vedder, Wins- 
low Homer, and other artists who 
in later years became famous. 

This was also an era of hirsute 
adornment that has long since dis- 
appeared in favor of the clean-shaven face—a fashion that set in early in the 
present century. In those days, however, a good set of “‘Unshrinkable Whiskers,” 
“Goatees,” ““Imperials,” ““Van Dykes,” “Walruses,” © Nutton Chops. saeco 
sides,” ‘‘Dundrearys,” “‘Galways,” “Sluggers,” and many other designs, were as 
requisite to the man of fashion as a Prince Albert. 

As for feminine fashion, this was the era of crinoline, when ladies sailed primly 
up and down at the promenade hour, with small waists, and enormous skirts, their 
tiny hats set snugly on the top of their coiled coiffures. Crinoline was the fabric 
that clothed them, stiff and extreme, but picturesque and elegant. Street boys on 
the corner sang songs derisive of this fashion and the following is quoted for its 
historical rather than poetic interest: 





Po Sax “SS 
Smart styles in the late 60's 


““Now crinoline is all the rage with ladies of whatever age, 

A petticoat made like a cage—oh, what a ridiculous fashion! 

’Tis formed of hoops and bars of steel, or tubes of air which lighter feel, 
And worn by girls to look genteel—or if they’ve figures to conceal. 

It makes the dresses stick far out, a dozen yards or so about, 

And pleases both the thin and stout—oh, what a ridiculous fashion!” 


An observer of manners reported that crinoline persisted because it not only 
covered the bodies but described the soul of the society it adorned—a society that 
was fussy and elegant, that rustled a little as it moved. It was split up into two 
camps, the old and accepted, the good, sturdy names that had helped carve the 
city out of nothingness—De Peyster and Van Rensselaer, Schuyler, Stuyvesant 
and Beekman; and the newly rich and eager, the visionary merchants of the 
‘“‘Sarsaparilla Townsend” breed, who were building up the vast and glittering 
metropolis we know today. 

Madison Square of the eighties was a center of metropolitan life such as New 
York, despite its tremendous growth since, has never in its essentials reproduced. 
Its unique position at the crossing of the City’s two greatest thoroughfares, each 
of a distinctive pre-eminence, served to make it the hub of their variegated activities. 


[72] 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


Fashion, Clubdom, Finance, Sport, Politics and Retail Trade all met here at high 
tide. It was said that one standing long enough on Fifth Avenue at 23d Street 
might meet everybody in the world. Fashionable society crossed it going north 
and south on the Avenue. Broadway from Eighth Street north sent 
its steady stream up to and through 23d Street along the ‘‘ Ladies’ 
Mile,” a shopping mart de luxe. 

“From Eighth Street down, the men are earning it, 

From Eighth Street up, the women are spurning it; 


That is the manner of this great town— 
From Eighth Street up and Eighth Street down.” 









Te, 
_ a Viewing Madison Square from the old “‘flatiron”’ junction, the 
ar js scene was Parisian in its kaleidoscopic cosmopolitan aspect. The 
Lit.eees| white stone facades of the hotels that bounded the Square on the 
eet «west heightened this impression. ‘The Park at that time was thick 
with magnificent trees, long since vanished; well-dressed visitors, 
dainty children and trim nursemaids occupied the benches. Skirting 
it, an extended line of hansoms, four-wheelers and coupés waited to 
pick up fares. Your average New Yorker, however, was not ad- 
dicted to this form of transportation. ‘The rates were exorbitant 
and there were often disputes concerning distance, as the period 
red was pre-taximeter. But 
Diana of the ; 
Tower’? rolling along on the Bel- 
gian block pavement were 
no end of private equipages of every 
degree of splendor—victorias, landaus, 
broughams, phaetons, with an occa- 
sional smart tandem or dog-cart. The 
‘“‘Jarveys”’ were mostly as correct as 
any to be seen in Hyde Park, but now 
and then a leisurely turnout appeared, 
driven by an ancient colored servitor 
—a domestic luxury that was soon to 
become extinct. 
The street crossing at this point 
of the ‘“‘flatiron”’ was controlled by a 
gigantic policeman, who knew and was 
known by all the celebrities of the 
Square. He was the most colossal of | : pais. 
the dandy “Broadway Squad,” the Ree gee: Sn 8} 
pick of the force, all of them six feet Dee Tea: 
‘ : View of the Garden from Fifth Avenue 
or over. He wore a helmet, and in his 
white-gloved hand a little rattan stick directed the horse-drawn traffic, in the 
manner of a bandmaster conducting a symphony. 
No other structure in the Madison Square section clusters so many interests 


[73] 





Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


as the Madison Square Garden, opened officially in 1890 with a concert by Edouard 
Strauss, nephew of the famous “Waltz King.” Its subsequent history is so varied 
a record of politics, sport, music, spectacle, carnival and exhibition that a separate 
volume would be necessary to do justice to it. ‘The old-time New Yorker will 
recall that the site of the Garden was a railway terminus of the New York and 
Harlem Railroad, when the outgoing trains were drawn by horses through the tun- 
nel as far north as the present Grand Central. ‘The creamy tower of the Garden, 
modeled on that of the Giralda in Seville, was the joint work of Saint Gaudens and 
White, and the surmounting Diana is the work of the former, inspired by Houdon’s 
Diana of the Louvre. ‘To the student of sports, says a recent writer, ‘“‘the Garden 
has meant the Horse Show, Dog Show, Cat Show, Poultry Show, Automobile 
Show, Sportsman’s Show, the Cake Walk, the Six-Day Bicycle Race, or events of 
the prize-ring from the days of Sullivan and Mitchell to those of Willard and 
Moran; Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show, or the circus, the Greatest Show on 
Earth, with its houris of the trapeze and the saddle, and its animals, almost as 
fearful and wonderful as the menagerie of adjectives that its press-agent, the 
renowned, or notorious, Tody Hamilton, gathered annually out of the jungles of 
the dictionary. Also the interior of the vast structure echoes in memory with 
political oratory, now thunderous and now persuasive. Through the words 
directed immediately at the thousands 
that fought their way within the walls, 
Presidents and candidates for President 
have sent ringing utterance throughout 
the vances 

The Garden Theater in the northwest 
corner of the structure is perhaps best 
remembered as the scene of the produc- 
tion of “‘Trilby,” with Wilton Lackaye’s 
striking performance of Svengali, and 
Richard Mansfield’s Baron Cheorial, in 
“ AeParisian Romance: 

The region we have just traversed was 

the last stronghold of New York society 
of the third quarter of the nineteenth 
sn century. 
SNe This period, too, saw the passing of 
av the dynastic system in society, as exem- 
plified in its viceroy, Ward McAllister, 
who, to outward view, gave little indica- 
tion of his office as the modern arbiter ele- 
gantium. He looked the prosperous man of 
business. A scion of a good Southern family, he was a stickler for the traditional 
social graces, and, in his “‘Society as I Have Found It,’’ modestly quotes the fol- 
lowing anonymous tribute with a great deal of self-complacency: 


[ 74 } 








©Century 


The Portico along the Madison Avenue side 


Lifth Avenue — Old and New 


: ¥ “ : : Se f 
€ i iia TU? Apeolt” = 
; mt yf Ee “+ eat Phces 
moth yt . Gt 4 Pm, . 
in. 7 | : = z a 


The John Jacob (at 33d Street) and W. W. Astor Houses (34th Street). From photo taken during a parade, 1886 





“There never was seen so fair a sight, as at Delmonico’s last night, 
When feathers, flowers, gems and lace adorned each lovely form and face. 
A garden of all thorns bereft, the outside world behind is left. 
They sat in order as if ‘Burke’ had sent a message by his clerk. 
And by whose magic wand is this all conjured up? The height of bliss— 
*Tis he, who now before you looms—the Autocrat of Drawing Rooms.” 


The construction of the Waldorf Hotel in 1893, and the Astoria in 1897 marked 
the beginning of a new era in Fifth Avenue. They were built upon land originally 
the property of John Thompson, who in 1799 paid approximately $2,500 for the 
twenty acres on Fifth Avenue, from 32nd to 36th Streets. "The Waldorf occupies 
the former site of the late John Jacob Astor’s town house. It was opened in 1893. 
It derives the name from the little town of Waldorf, Duchy of Baden, Germany, the 
ancestral home of the Astor family. ‘The Astoria covers the site of the William B. 
Astor town house, and was erected by Col. John Jacob Astor II. It opened in 
1897. It is named after Astoria, founded in 1811 by John Jacob Astor, the first, at 
the mouth of the Columbia River, Oregon. 

With the passing of the old Astor residences, the greatest social center New 
York had ever known ended, and in its place was to arise an Avenue of Commerce, 
unique in the annals of the world. 

On opening its doors, the Waldorf announced that ladies, unescorted, were 
welcome guests. Within a short time the wisdom of this progressive step was 


75] 





LOOKING SOUTH ON FIFTH AVENUE FROM THE BRICK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN 1873 


HIS excellent picture was drawn from life for Harper’s Weekly. It is particularly interesting, 

as it shows the houses at that time on the east side stood quite far back from the street, allowing 

spacious lawns in front. Goy. E. D. Morgan’s house is on the corner of 36th Street. The 
skating pond to which we have referred elsewhere ran along 36th Street almost to Madison Avenue. 
The monotony of the “brownstone fronts” is also plainly indicated in this contemporary sketch. 


[ 76} 


JW 


5 





CovENTRY WADDELL’s VILLA, FirrH AVENUE AND 38TH STREET, 1845 


HIS quaint, gothic-looking structure was, in its day, the centre of social life in high society. 

Thackeray speaks of his experiences there which seem to have been unusually pleasant. The 

grounds extended back to Sixth Avenue, a large part of which was a hay-field. It has a direct 
interest for our city, as in this house, strange though it may seem, originated the idea of putting police- 
men in uniforms. James G. Gerard, a prominent lawyer of his day (grandfather of our late Ambassador 
to Germany), for some time had advocated the adoption of a distinctive dress for the ‘“‘rattle watch,” 
as constables were then called, and who were dressed for the most part like tatterdemalions. At a 
fancy dress ball at Waddell’s he appeared in a costume that illustrated his idea—blue coat, brass buttons, 
helmet and club. So convincing was his demonstration that the Common Council shortly afterwards 
adopted the idea, which is substantially the uniform worn today. Mr. Waddell experienced reverses 
and the mansion was finally demolished. 


[77] 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 








A. T. Stewart’s Marble Palace, Fifth Avenue, corner 34th Street, 1880. City Club at corner 35th Street. Art Gallery of 
Samuel P. Avery in centre 


conceded and due credit given to Mrs. John Jacob Astor, who was mainly respon- 
sible for the idea. ‘There have been many famous gatherings at the Waldorf and 
perhaps the Bradley Martin Ball is among the best remembered. It created a 
great sensation in its day and furnished food for gossip many months afterward. 
About 1861 there stood at the northwest corner of 34th Street, on ground which 
originally was also part of the Thompson farm, the residence of Dr. “‘Sarsaparilla” 
Townsend. His house, at a reputed cost of over $100,000, was one of the sights 
of the City. In 1862 he sold it to Dr. G. D. Abbott, whose brother wrote the 
famous Rollo books. He conducted a seminary for young ladies until the building 
was bought by A. T. Stewart. The marble palace erected by Stewart boasted a 
magnificence which far eclipsed any previous building in the city For his alleged 
extravagance he was subjected to much severe criticism, which was tempered, 
however, by a recognition of the architectural grandeur of the estate. Stewart 
lived in his palatial home for only a few years; his widow occupied it until her 
death in 1886, after which the Manhattan Club leased the property. ‘The cost 
of maintenance proved prohibitive and the club shortly thereafter abandoned the 
building. No other practical use being found for it, an end was made to the 
imposing pile. The Knickerbocker Trust Company succeeded to the site. 


[78 } 





Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


Directly opposite the old Stewart site stands an imposing rectangle occupying 
a full block on the Avenue from the corner of 34th to 35th Streets, back to Madison 
Avenue. A group of typical old New Yorkers occupied these homes. One by one 
oe eae ai | _ they were relinquished, as 
eee — | ; that far-sighted merchant, 
aes ee : , Benjamin Altman, assembled 
ion , : this property, over a period 
. from 1895 to 1904. When he 
purchased the first parcel, 
one hundred and thirty-one 
feet on Fifth Avenue and two 
hundred and one feet on 35th 
Street, an unusual trans- 
action for those days, the 
surrounding buildings were 
in the following hands: No. 
355 Fifth Avenue (the corner 
house), J. N. A. Griswold, 
whose stable at No. 1 East 
34th Street connected with 
his residence. This parcel 
was later (1889) sold by Gris- 
wold to a famous art gallery. 
At No. 357 resided Edward 
J. King, a prominent mer- 
chant. No. 359 was acquired 
toe by Frank L. Wing for the 
Dr. Townsend’s residence, corner 5th Avenue and 34th Street, which preceded PUTPOSe of establishing a 

Pe OPS ant a piano business. ‘The adjoin- 
ing house at 361 was occupied by Julia Chadwick, the wife of a noted collector of 
antiques and manuscripts relating to old New York. 

The homes on the Madison Avenue side of this rectangle recall many familiar 
names. No. 190 was occupied by the Delano family; 192 to 198 were owned by 
W. W. Astor. No. 188 belonged to a remarkable character—Margaret A. Howard, 
G@tecemaker extraordinary, to the “four hundred’ of that time. Nos. 1, 3) and 5 
East 34th Street belonged to the J. W. Beekman family, while No. 11 belonged 
to Henry Astor Cary. 

Fifth Avenue from 35th to 36th Streets, on both the west and the east sides, 
was originally part of the common land of the City of New York. In 1897 
the City Club occupied the northwest corner; eleven years later Thomas R. Ball 
leased the property from James R. Roosevelt, Jr. and Helen Roosevelt Robinson, 
and erected thereon the present building. 

The southwest corner of 36th Street and Fifth Avenue was, in 1827, part 
of the farm of Dr. Samuel Nicoll. In 1881 it was purchased by John Jacob 


179} 





Old and New 





Fifth Avenue 





East side of Fifth Avenue, 34th and a, ee 1904, part of square block which is assessed today (1924) 
at approximately fourteen millions of dollars, ranking as one of the most valuable blocks in the entire city 


Astor and twenty-four years later a noted firm of silversmiths erected on this 
property a building designed by Stanford White. ‘The name of this great architect 
appears frequently in the course of this history—which is justified, we believe, by 
the fact that his creative scope included all types of architecture—from the 
palatial home to the superb commercial structures of our day. 

From 1879 to 1884 the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 35th Street was 
the site of a residence belonging to the John Caswell estate. This area was a 
part of what was, in the middle of the 19th Century, a typical rural roadway, 
which emerged out of the rut at 28th Street, and cut into Fifth Avenue below 
41st Street. Designated on maps as the Middle Road, it was the easterly limit 
of the Thompson farm. 

The entire block on the west side of Fifth Avenue from 37th to 38th Street 
was, in 1845, the suburban mansion and grounds of William Coventry Waddell, a 
close friend of President Andrew Jackson and financial advisor to his Administra- 
tion. his villa, for which Waddell paid $9,150, was at the time one of the most 
talked of structures of the day. ‘The grounds were divided into walks, lined with 
hedges and vine-covered walls. ‘The house was of yellowish-gray stucco, Gothic 
in treatment, and a winding staircase ascended from the broad marble hall to 
one of its numerous turrets, from which a sweeping view of the surrounding country 


[ 80 } 





CROTON CoTTAGE, FIFTH AVENUE AND 40TH STREET, 1850 


N the years following the opening of the Aqueduct it was made the end of the afternoon drive from 

St. John’s Park, Second Avenue and other fashionable sections, and Croton Cottage provided 

ice cream and other refreshments. It also had a curious “‘maze” in its garden which greatly 
interested the country visitor. It was destroyed by fire during the draft riots. The site was after- 
ward purchased by William H. Vanderbilt, who erected the first residence of that family on the Avenue. 


{ 81} 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


was obtained. The remoteness of this location from the heart of the city is evi- 
denced by the fact that a wheat field covered most of the land toward Sixth Avenue. 

The Governor E. D. Morgan house, which stood at the corner of 37th Street, 
was set back from the street and had quite a rural appearance. A garden extended 
nearly. half way down the block on the 37th Street side, and in winter it was flooded 
and provided a private skating rink for the governor and his friends. This was 
one of the few blocks that retained its rural aspect long after business and residences 
had absorbed every vacant foot of land remaining. The 38th Street corner was 
also covered with brilliant flowers and foliage, but this was the greenhouse of a 
prominent florist, and not a product of nature. 

At the corner of 38th Street lived Austin Corbin, eee of the Long Island 
Railroad and founder of the original Coney Island, when the two hotels, Manhattan 
Beach and Oriental, with Levy the cornetist, Gilmore’s band and Paine’s fire- 
works, drew nightly throngs to this famous resort. On the East side, between 
38th and 39th Streets, were private residences occupied in 1880 by Thomas Terry, 
John R. Harris, William Post, George W. Pell, E. H. Langdon, Dr. N. R. Mosely, 
Richard M. Pell; Mrs. Suydam, Josiah Howes Burton; between 39th and 40th 
dwelt Lawrence Kip, Dr. Isaac L. Kip, Robert B: Clark: 

At 386 Fifth Avenue was the St. Nicholas Club, interested in the preservation 
of information concerning the early Dutch settlers of New York. 

On the northeast corner of 39th Street stands, as it has stood since 1881, the 
home of the Union League Club, founded in 1863 “to discountenance disloyalty to 
the United States, and for the promotion of good government and the elevation 
of American Citizenship.” Its dinners to distinguished men, such as President 
Grant, President Arthur and General Sherman, are memorable. Among its presi- 
dents of nation-wide fame have been Hamilton Fish, William M. Evarts, Joseph 
H. Choate, Elihu Root, Chauncey M. Depew and Horace M. Porter. The im- 
posing group of portraits of Union leaders in the gallery of this club serves to ac- 
centuate its former outstanding service to the country. 

A four-story brick dwelling-house, built in 1856 in the severest simplicity, 
stands on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 39th Street. It was the home 
of John Gottlieb Wendel and his three elderly sisters. The Wendel fortune was 
bound up with that of the original John Jacob Astor. The first John G. Wendel 
was a partner in the fur business with the first John Jacob Astor in a little house 
that stood on Maiden Lane. 

The earliest history of this section of the Avenue boasts an important episode 
of the Revolutionary War. ‘The Continental troops had been routed at the foot 
of East 34th Street. On Sunday, September 15, 1776, in the house of the Quaker, 
Robert Murray, ‘‘Inclenberg,”’ on 37th Street east of Fifth Avenue, the British 
officers were entertained by Mrs. Murray long enough to enable Washington and 
Putnam to rally their troops and conduct them in safety to Harlem Heights. 

In 1804, Lindley Murray, author of the famous grammar, a son of the Murray 
of this episode, bought for $5,000 the strip of five acres between 35th and 37th 
Streets and built a square dwelling-house directly in line with Fifth Avenue from 


{82} 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 





Fifth Avenue between 38th and 30th Streets, west side, about 1880 


36th to 37th Street. The house was set in the midst of a garden, screened from 
the road by plentiful trees, while a gentle brook fringed the spacious grounds. 
Directly opposite on the East side was the Bloomingdale farm, the country residence 
of John Taylor, great grandfather of Mrs. Robert W. De Forest. It comprised 
about thirty acres and went back to Sixth Avenue to the Bloomingdale farm. 
Mr. Taylor sold this parcel for $50,000. ‘Today it is worth that many millions. 

The land beyond this point was not settled until 1854, when a tavern known 
as “Croton Cottage” dispensed refreshments at the southeast corner of 40th 
Street and Fifth Avenue. The two acres adjacent to the cottage housed an attrac- 
tion called ‘Maize Garden,” opened July 1, 1853. This was a labyrinth modeled 
on the one in Hampton Court in the reign of William II. 

In 1863 the cottage was burned during the draft riots; three years later 
William H. Vanderbilt acquired this land for $80,000 and built his first Fifth 
Avenue home upon it; later it was given to his son Frederick W. Vanderbilt. 
It was within the present decade that the building was torn down to make way 
for the move uptown of one of New York’s oldest business establishments. 

The old Croton Aqueduct—the most famous Metropolitan structure of its 
time—extended from 40th to 42d Street, on the land now occupied by the imposing 
building of the New York Public Library. 

The year 1842 marked what was perhaps the greatest forward stride 
in the city’s history—the general introduction of running water—and yet 
Chauncey M. Depew was seven years old before that stupendous improvement 
was accomplished. It is only by such a striking statement that the average man 
can appreciate the meteoric and astounding growth of New York. When the 
reservoir was first completed it had a spacious promenade all around the top of 
the walls upon which gay and animated groups constantly gathered. Old letters 
speak of the delightful scene at night, with the moonlight dancing on the water. 
In the daytime, charming views of Long Island, the distant hills of Westchester, 
and the lordly heights of the Palisades provided a fascinating panorama. It was 


[ 83 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 





certainly a delightful spot and for years marked the end of the afternoon drive 
by the fashionables from St. John’s Park, Stuyvesant Square and Bond Street. 
A more than antiquarian interest attached to the imposing celebration held 
by the city to mark the completion of this gigantic engineering feat by the fact 
that the temperance organizations in the year 1840 were so strong, even then, 
that no wine or spirits of any kind were offered to the invited guests at the ban- 
quet—nothing but Croton Water. 

The first seminary for the higher education for young ladies in New York— 
Rutgers Female College—moved, in 1860, to a row of buildings known as ‘‘the 
House of Mansions,” located opposite the reservoir on Fifth Avenue, between 
41st and 42d Streets. 

Upon the land immediately west of the Croton Reservoir was constructed 
the Crystal Palace, an imitation of its famous prototype in London. It was 
opened by President Franklin Pierce on July 4, 1853, with an international exhi- 
bition of the arts and industries of all nations. It burned down in 1858, a few 
months after it had been the scene of an ovation to Cyrus W. Field upon the suc- 
cessful completion of the Atlantic cable. No mention can be made of the Crystal 
Palace without reference to its first president, the celebrated P. T. Barnum, who 
resided at 438 Fifth Avenue. A picturesque figure, his originality was often 


[ 84 J 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 





Bloomingdale Farm. Country residence of John Taylor Johnston, Fifth Avenue and goth Street, 1840 


mistaken for buffoonery. Yet Mr. Barnum was a man of integrity and great busi- 
ness sagacity. He is still remembered by many New Yorkers, and always rode 
at the head of his great circus in Madison Square Garden. In 1862 the site of the 
Crystal Palace was used as an encampment for Union troops; nine years later it 
was laid out into what was known as “Reservoir Park,” and in 1884 the name 
was changed to Bryant Park. 

Opposite the Crystal Palace was the Latting observatory, three hundred and 
fifty feet high, commanding from the summit a unique view of New York and its 
environment. At each landing there were telescopes and maps. In 1856 it was 
destroyed by fire. On another page we print a view of the Avenue taken from this 
structure. 

North of 42d Street is shown, more dramatically, perhaps, than in any other 
section, the startling changes that have occurred. This development becomes 
graphic when we recall that late as 1840 the land on the east side of Fifth Avenue 
from 44th to 46th Street was a cattle yard. The 42d Street corner of this land 
was the residence of former Vice-President Levi P. Morton, and later (in 1899) 
it became the Hamilton Hotel. A predecessor of Governor Morton—Governor 
Roswell P. Flower—lived at No. 597 Fifth Avenue. The house at No. 511 Fifth 
Avenue was at one time the residence of ‘‘Boss Bill” Tweed. Contrary to the 
general belief, it was not from this address that he made his escape to Spain, after 
his arrest for robbing the city. He fled in May, 1875, was extradited the same 
year and died in Ludlow Street jail two years later. 


[85 } 





Fifth Aveuue — Old and New 





Courtesy Mr. Robert Fridenberg. 


The Crystal Palace in Bryant Park, just back of the Croton Reservoir, in 1885. This gives an excellent view of the city south of 
42d Street at that period 


The section we are describing was the scene of the one and only riot that ever 
occurred on Fifth Avenue. Congress had passed the conscription law of 1863. 
It proved so unpopular that within two days of its promulgation the objectors 
organized the riff-raff of the city. The mob set fire to a building on West 42d 
Street, worked its way east, setting fire to Bull’s Head Hotel at 44th Street, and 
to the Croton Cottage. Stores were plundered and people were killed. But 
perhaps the most brutal episode was the attack on the Colored Orphan Asylum 
which stood on the west side of Fifth Avenue, between 44th and 45th Streets. 
The building was pillaged and burned to the ground. Fortunately the children 
had been hurried into safety. The riot was finally quelled by troops under 
General Wood and General Sanford. 

Reposing peacefully at the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 44th Street 
stood a little frame cottage, ““Ye Olde Willow Tree Inn.” At one time it was 
managed by a famous pugilist of his day, Tom Hyer. The corner which in 1853 
sold for $8,500 rose in value so rapidly as to become a classic instance of the 
transformation of values in this section. Fifty-two years later it was held at two 
million dollars. 

Where Delmonico’s stood until recently, the northeast corner of 44th Street 


[ 86 J 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 





: in 





Collection J. Clarence Davies 
FIFTH AVENUE AND 59TH STREET, 1863, SITE OF A FAMOUS FASHIONABLE PRIVATE SKATING CLUB 


tion. Mr. Irving Brokaw, in ‘‘Skating in Old New York,” gives the following lists of private 
ponds along Fifth Avenue alone: 

A sizable pond between 37th and 38th Streets; Beekman’s Pond between 59th Street and 60th 
Street; Alexander McMillan’s at 46th Street, site of Windsor Hotel; the New York Skating Club 
at 59th Street, site of Plaza, and later (1864) corner Fifth Avenue and 72d Street. 

“The patronage of all these private skating ponds,” says Mr. Brokaw, ‘‘consisted of the most 
fashionable people in the City. It was the custom for the elite to drive the sleighs close to the side 
of the pond and watch the work of the experts.” 

“When I read the winter sports the inhabitants of New York enjoyed fifty or sixty years ago I 
sometimes wish I had been of the former generation. The idea of a skating club privilege, to have a 
hundred days of outdoor skating in one season and that on ponds located in the heart of the city, makes 
us skaters envious indeed.” 

The emblem on the flag is a life preserver. In early days (1849) they were called ‘Skating and 
Humane Clubs,” the “humane”’ part consisting of reels of rope and life preservers to save life on frozen 
lakes and rivers. But the paucity of claimants for their services turned the apparatus into a badge of 
membership. From left to right, names of the gentlemen shown in this rare photograph: Silas D. 
Benson, E. B. Cook, H. C. Mecklen, O. G. Brady, E. Miller, William Ward, James Mead, E. C. Burr, 
John Creighton, J. S. Hiscox, A. J. Dupignac (on bicycle), Chase W. Jenkins, Joseph Egbert, Robert 
Edwards, Dr. J. A. Dickson, Edwin Egbert, Andrew MacMillan, J. Bilger, Hugh Mitchell and Dr. 
Railton. 


P NHIS pastime in the ’60s and ’70s enjoyed a measure of popularity unknown to the present genera- 


[ 87 } 





“Yr OLDE WILLOW CortacE,” FirtH AVENUE AND 44TH STREET 


S late as 1905 this quaint old reminder of the Cattle Market at 44th Street, with the solitary 
tree from which it derived its name, was a familiar landmark on the Avenue. During the 
draft riots, in which the Colored Orphan Asylum was burned, this cottage became a sort of 

headquarters for the rioters. When the old inn was finally removed to make room for an office 
building the original cost of the site had risen from $8,500 to $2,000,000. At one time it was con- 
ducted by Tom Hyer, a famous old-time pugilist. 


[88 ] 


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From an old print issued by Dr. Gardner 


FirtH AVENUE NEAR ST. PATRICK’S CATHEDRAL, ABOUT 1876 


HOWING Dr. Gardner’s private school for young ladies—carriage in front. The vacant space 
beyond afterward built upon by the Vanderbilts. Some liberties have been taken with the drawing 
of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, as the spires were not then completed. 


[89 } 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


was occupied by the original ‘‘Allerton” Hotel, now expanded into a number of 
*Allertons.”’ ‘This hotel was discontinued when the cattle yards were moved to 
Eleventh Avenue and the property was bought by John H. Sherwood to build 
the “Sherwood House,” in its time a prominent family hotel. Sherwood played 
an important part in the development of upper Fifth Avenue as a residential part 
of the city. He was one of the founders of the Fifth Avenue Bank, which was 
organized in October, 1875. 

Standing majestically as a proof of the survival of spiritual values is the 
Temple Emanu-el, on the east side of Fifth Avenue above 43d Street, built in 1868. It 
is a worthy example of Moorish architecture designed by Leopold Eidlitz. Another 
notable synagogue, farther north, is the Temple Beth-el, which was completed in 
1891 and represents a congregation which dates back to 1826. 

The famous Sherry’s at 44th Street was the result of a demand for a more 
convenient social center than that afforded by Delmonico’s which, in the 90's, 
was at 26th Street. Sherry’s establishment became the scené of some of the 
most brilliant society functions of the early twentieth century. A pretty, embow- 
ered terrace, containing tables and chairs in front of the building, provided quite a 
Parisian atmosphere. ‘This very charming effect, which was a feature of the old 
days on the Avenue, was destroyed by the discovery of an old law which revealed 
that the stoop line had been merely loaned, and not granted. ‘The pressure fot more 
width demolished all these outdoor gardens—the Union League, the Waldorf and 
numerous private residences being shorn of this bit of picturesque color and gaiety. 

Intertwined with the social history of Fifth Avenue is the name of Thomas 
Buchanan, who was one of the substantial holders of real estate on Fifth Avenue 
in the early years of the nineteenth century. Between 1803 and 1807 he bought 
fifty-five acres on the east side of Fifth Avenue, extending from 45th to 48th Street, 
for $7,537. He died in 1815, leaving his estate to a widow and eight children. 
Two daughters married into the Goelet family, which thus inherited much of their 
Fifth Avenue holdings. A part of this property is now occupied by the Church of 
the Heavenly Rest, justly noted for its wood carving and stained-glass windows. 

At a much later time this particular section of the Avenue, for about a mile, 
was the favorite scene of the Church Parade. A score or two of religious edifices 
are within a short radius, and on Sundays this part of the Avenue presented a scene 
of great beauty and animation. ‘The famous Easter 
Parade, however, was more than a mere promenade to 
and from church. It was an annual fashion show, 
and the Easter Monday newspapers always devoted 
several columns to the description of the costumes 
worn by the celebrities, which were quoted in the press — 
throughout the country. ‘The immense throng that Windsor Arcade, ee! 
comprised this outpouring was not alone of the upper a 
ten thousand—hundreds came from distant points, augmenting those from the 
humbler neighborhoods, who mingled bravely for the moment with the “smart set.” | 
The modes of Division Street vied with the creations of the Avenue’s most exclusive 


[90] 








Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


- a aaa 


| 





ad w = : oe “ ‘s yi Me | 
Around the corner from the Avenue at Forty-second Street is the New York Central Terminal. This shows how the station 


looked in ’53. Note the small wooden station and the carry-all waiting for passengers, also the wood-burning locomotive. The 
Colored Orphan Asylum at Fifth Avenue and 44th Street is the large building in center 








milliners. Preparations for this vernal blooming were begun weeks before, and 
bitter was the disappointment if this day were bleak and cloudy. There were no 
sport clothes, nor Sunday golf or baseball, but everything of the utmost decorum— 
gentlemen in silk ‘toppers,’ ladies in latest Parisian modes—conservative but 
absolutely correct 

Along with club life on the Avenue came also hotel life. ‘The one that will be 
recalled first by our oldest residents is undoubtedly the Windsor. In its day it 
was a wonder and its tragic end cast a gloom over the city that remained for many 
days. It was built in 1873, and was the superlative expression in hotels of its time. 
Its interior was embellished with magnificent woodwork, an incident not entirely 
unconnected with its latter end. Its register contained the names of notables 
and aristocrats the world over. It superseded the Fifth Avenue Hotel as the up- 
town center of finance, largely owing to the proximity of Jay Gould’s residence 
on the northeast corner of 47th Street. Gould frequented the hotel evenings, 
and clusters of financiers—Russell Sage, James R. Keene, H. M. Flagler, Wash- 
ington Connor, F. Work and W. H. Vanderbilt—might have been seen there in his 
company. President McKinley made the hotel his New York stopping-place and 
it had special telephone connections with Washington for his benefit. As a 
bachelor, Andrew Carnegie lived there for years. The fire on the afternoon of March 
17, 1899, which cost the lives of over a score of guests and inmates, including the 
family of the proprietor, Lalance, was remarkable for the rapidity with which the 


91] 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


flames progressed. A serious delay in the arrival of the Fire Department was 
attributed, by the officials of that department, to the blocking of the Avenue by 
St. Patrick’s Parade. Aside from that, however, the catastrophe was a grim 
comment on the flimsiness of practically 
every hotel of the Windsor’s early period 
and led to construction changes of the 
first importance. 

But perhaps the most romantic 
section on the Avenue is the Columbia 
leaseholds. The twenty acres of ground 
comprised in this territory—from 47th 
to 51st Street, from Fifth to Sixth 
Avenue—was bought from the city by 
Dr. David Hosack of Columbia College 
in 1801 for an average price of $180 per 
lot. Heestablished there what is known 
as the Elgin Botanical Gardens, opened 
in 1804. In 1806 it contained two 
thousand species of plants, with one spacious greenhouse and two hot-houses. ‘This 
area was purchased from Dr. Hosack in 1814 by the Legislature, the State in turn 
deeding the land to Columbia College, to replace land granted long before and 
lost when Vermont (in which it lay) became a State. Columbia University holds 
this property, which is assessed today at thirty million dollars, and it has largely 
contributed to the great wealth of the college. Dr. Hosack was a distinguished 
figure in the city’s early history and actively interested in public affairs. He 
was a prime mover in the foundation of Bellevue Hospital, and one of the 
physicians who attended Hamilton after his fatal duel with Burr. 

A memory of the Old Dutch times survives in the Fifth Avenue Collegiate 
Church, corner of 48th Street. ‘This Dutch Reformed Church was dedicated in 
1872 and now stands on part of the Elgin Garden site. A bell, cast in Amsterdam 
in 1731, hangs in the tower. Originally it hung in the Middle Dutch Church on 
Nassau Street, and legend has it that it was taken down and hidden while the 
British held New York. Of course, when Peter Minuit, Director-General of the 
New Netherlands, in 1628 organized this church, he did not call it the Fifth Avenue 
Collegiate, nor did he dream of building it here, where the Indians would have 
seriously interfered with the services. The congregation that worships here is the 
rightful successor of that which nearly three hundred years ago used to meet in its 
primitive building, now downtown at Old Slip. 

In 1868 a small, three-story farmhouse and outbuildings occupied the center 
of the block on the west side of Fifth Avenue between 51st and 52d Streets. It was 
originally the Beinhauer farm and later became a vegetable garden maintained by 
Isaiah Keyser, who catered to the residents along lower Fifth Avenue. This block 
is now occupied by the Vanderbilt ‘“‘twin mansions,” so called because of their simi- 
larity in design. William H. Vanderbilt built them in 1882. 


[ 92] 





Courtesy J. Clarence Davies 
Lillian Russell takes a stroll along the Avenue in the ’oos 





Ty ye ee wee 





From the original painting by J. J. Sawyer. By permission of Mr. and Mrs. Francis A. Lester, Newark, N. J. 


SITE OF THE VANDERBILT TwIN Houses 


HE first Vanderbilt house on Fifth Avenue was built on the corner of 40th Street by Wm. H. 

Vanderbilt. The “Commodore,” founder of the family fortune, never got farther uptown than 

Washington Place, where he had a yard spacious enough for a small circus ring, on which to 
exercise his horses and enable his children to practice horseback riding. The Commodore was a familiar 
figure behind a pair of spanking trotters, a taste which was shared by his son, Wm. H., and his grandson, 
William K. 

After leaving 40th Street Wm. H. took possession of the town houses between 51st and 52d Streets, 
which, at the time of their erection, were the wonder of the day. Open spaces extended North on both 
sides of the Avenue almost to the Park. The rapid growth of the Avenue is aptly illustrated in the 
rural setting of the Beinhauer farm, which is the site as it appeared when the town houses were started. 


[93 } 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 





Fifth Avenue between 47th and 51st Streets. Elgin Botanic Gardens, about 1825 


The Buckingham Hotel, built in 1877, and the Democratic Club for many 
years stood on part of the land donated by the city in 1827 to the New York 
Institute for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb. ‘The workshops of this asylum 
were noted for their efficiency before the modern era of vocational guidance set in. 

The Buckingham made the first attempt to attract private families to a hotel 
so far north. Its initial pamphlet naively remarks: ‘There is no noise, no con- 
fusion of porters or waiters, no loungers or patrons of the bar, who are not guests 
of the house. No attempt is made at mere display. The ‘Steamboat style’ is 
nowhere visible. Single rooms, Eastlike style, $7.00 per week.” 

The architecture of Fifth Avenue above 50th Street in the early ’80’s broke 
away from the brownstone tradition. The revolutionary experiment of William 
K. Vanderbilt through his French chateau erected at 52d Street, marked a brilliant 
contrast which was followed in type with the addition of a park and porte-cochére 
in the Cornelius Vanderbilt house at 58th Street. "These were the costliest resi- 
dences that had until then been built in New York. The keynote struck by this 
French transplantation marked the style of residential architecture on Fifth Avenue 
for the next score of years, and has only recently been superseded by a return to 
the Georgian, as expressed in the Carnegie, Frick and other notable houses. In 


[94] 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 





St. Patrick’s Cathedral, showing part of Roman Catholic Orphan Home on site now occupied by Union Club 


the new business buildings some classic Old World structures have been almost 
wholly reproduced to the great advantage of the Avenue as a whole. 

St. Patrick’s Cathedral, 50th to 51st Street, stands on what was once part 
of the Common Lands of the city. Archbishop Hughes planned the idea 
and James Renwick, Jr., who designed Grace Church, was the architect. The 
corner-stone was laid on August 15, 1858. Archbishop Hughes died in 1864, 
but his work was carried on by Cardinal McCloskey, Archbishop Corrigan and 
Cardinal Farley. After years of effort to obtain the means to build this mag- 
nificent edifice, ultimately costing $4,000,000, the Cathedral was formallv opened 


195 ] 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


and blessed on May 25, 1879, and consecrated October 5, 1910. Just north of 
the Cathedral stood the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum, the history of which 
goes back to 1817. Its Fifth Avenue home was occupied in 1852. The Union 
Club at 51st Street stands on ground once part of the asylum’s site. 

St. Thomas’ Church on the northwest corner of 53d Street, a fine example 
of Gothic architecture, was rebuilt after its predecessor on the site had been 
burned in 1906. On the west side, between 54th and 55th Streets, occupying 
the entire block, stood St. Luke’s Hospital, one of the landmarks of the Avenue 
since 1858. This is now the site of the University Club. St. Luke’s Hospital was 
opened with three nurses and nine patients. It is now located above the new 
St. John’s Cathedral, on Morningside Heights. 

For fifty years the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church has stood at the north- 
west corner of Fifth Avenue and 55th Street. 

The block between 57th and 58th Streets, on the east side of the Avenue, 
was built upon in 1871 by Mary Mason Jones, daughter of John Mason, a former 
president of the Chemical Bank, from whom she inherited the site. It was 
long known as ‘“‘Marble Row.” In 1825 Mason bought this tract for $1,500. 
In erecting the ‘““Marble Row” Mrs. Jones introduced French tendencies in 
architecture, which finally marked the passing of the “brownstone fronts” as a 
fashion. She herself lived on the 57th Street corner; later her home was occupied 
by Mrs. Paran Stevens. ‘The transition of the houses on ‘‘Marble Row” into 
business buildings may be summed up as the refinement of homes giving way to 
the refinement of service. ‘The new business enterprises respect the spirit of the 
old walls. 

The hotels grouped at the 59th Street dividing line were once rocky knolls. 
Even after the Civil War, shallow ponds remained as vestiges of the brook which 
originally flowed down 59th Street. 

But the section above 59th Street was not always the center of wealth. 
At one time the territory clear to Mt. Morris Park was invaded by more than 
five thousand ‘‘wastrels,’? and was known as “‘Shantytown,” and its queer in- 
habitants as ‘‘Squatters.” (See illustration on page 17.) 

In this connection it must be remembered that the lighting of Fifth Avenue 
was an important factor in this northward growth. In 1847 gas was used only as 
far as 18th Street; in 1850 it was extended as far as 30th Street; and about 1870 
it was carried as far as 59th Street. 


[ 96 } 





Underwood & Underwood 


Bronze traffic signal tower at 42d Street and Fifth Avenue. Unveiled December 18, 1922. Designed by Joseph H. Freedlander 
and presented by the Fifth Avenue Association, Inc., to the City of New York along with six other towers of similar design. Total 
cost of towers approximately, $125,000 


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Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


Fifth Avenue To-day 


By 
WILLIAM J. PEDRICK, 
IN COLLABORATION WITH FREDERICK N. SARD 
“T can not play upon any stringed instru- 
ment; but I can tell you how of a little 


village to make a great and glorious city.” 
THEMISTOCLES 


History is change; we wish to measure the change. For us, there is an apparent 
choice of units with which to do so. The progress from one generation to another 
may be estimated in any of several valuations: that of the artist, that of the 
student of society, that of the economist. And each description, though it seems to 
differ from the others, will be concerned with the same thing—will be telling the 
same story. 

To Fifth Avenue, one hundred years brought a new world of commerce, a 
new type of architecture, a vastly varied population. These are not separate facts— 
there is only one fact: Fifth Avenue has grown. Of this growth a table of realty 
_ values is only seemingly a one-sided index; actually it is the final test. 

The earliest recorded assessment of real estate on Fifth Avenue occurs in the 
year 1826, when the section from Washington Arch to 13th Street was valued by 
the authorities at $14,600. 

Our readers will appreciate the importance of presenting for the first time a 
comparative table of realty values in the Fifth Avenue section from 1826 to 1924. 


A Century of Realty Values 


District Date Value 1924 Value Exempt 1924 
FIFTH AVENUE in Dollars 
eer eUal VLCC nas. 4. .ilaw aa sade » 1826 14,600 8,128,000 1,167,000 
Mato 240 StreCl sc. i.s easy ess ese... 1836. 405,000 29,541,500 
Petoatneotreet.5.. 0.0 ,..+01-k-2.-24.- 1838 246,500 61,947,000 1,000,000 
amma Oth asireets.. 4 soos cs dane ena tens 2t838e / 138,800 71,802,000 2,390,000 
BMROUSOLISILECL, «2 a.cc bed ven asae ce aw, 1841 ~ 397,000 259,611,000 53,250,000 
PeetGnt lOUMOtFeel -- 255 sushi nna were 1841 | 3173,000 22,287,000 11,613,000 
MADISON AVENUE 
POM OAUID OL eck. sheet vcche tice tees are L640 © 112,300 59,462,000 1,950,000 
POmeC LS Ot SLTECLS..) ences Bad ee be ae ee tOOt.) 930,000 64,064,000 1,290,000 
PARK AVENUE 
Batieto 40th Street. 5 .5..c0c Baler. uence, 21844 33,100 10,874,000 800,000 
Bie LOLS ORIG OLLCE heir coe aie teu inten rah 1855. 297,510 85,746,000 3,310,000 
BOtnst on hOliizs treet ea.2 wide aon ee OO ee LOO 53,104,000 16,000,000 
CROSSTOWN 
Lexington Avenue or Irving Place to Sixth Avenue 
VAthotrect amar. en et et ar ee OOO neem Lo, OU) 13,265,000 
Dials ey nde ed ee Ree wetness athe iep oe fe on. 04) 25,428,000 
RERUNS a coam Corn are ee venereal me Reo 8, 49,375 27,616,000 800,000 
A DTI CLEC ET acon, ean alae mice t 1841 43,200 33,861,000 
SP heoLreet te aulc cua hence enencre tae 1841 15,000 26,494,000 890,000 
tA a Bie Cobol Be aay ay Pe Ue 1841 12,000 10,409,000 155,000 


[ 99} 


iis teapot 


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Fifth Avenue looking north from Washington Arch to 14th Street 


© Cosmo Photo Service 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


As these figures represent tne first authentic and complete valuations, ‘it is 
proper to refer to the sources of the classification, and the method pursued. The 
values listed have been ascertained by a study of the assessment books of the vari- 
ous wards, checked by field books and lot maps. The Tax Department has been 
followed strictly and in accordance with its practice, the New York Public Library, 
at 42d Street and Fifth Avenue, valued at $29,400,000, is credited to the exemption 
total of Fifth Avenue. The Grand Central zone, from 45th to 42d Street, and from 
Depew Place to Vanderbilt Avenue, is valued at $23,600,000. No distinction has 
been made by the Tax Department as to which part of its value has been ascribed 
to 42d Street; it has not, therefore, been entered. On Fifth Avenue, that section 
of Mt. Sinai Hospital fronting on Fifth Avenue has been added to its exemption 
totals, whereas those of its buildings facing on other streets have not been so 
credited. On Madison Avenue above 42d Street, as in many other places, the 1924 
assessment had not as yet entered the newer buildings at full value, as they were in 
course of construction at the time our history was written. 

From the criss-crossing of Indian trails and rural lanes to a stately, wide 
avenue, is the development of a century, in which the rate of growth has been 
accelerated every twenty years. With the year 1900 the Avenue turned to large 
. scale enterprise that altered whole sections. ‘To seize the main outlines of this 
growth within the limits of this narrative, it is necessary for us to rely on the bird’s- 
eye view which only figures can give, aided by the vivid aerial photograph, 
reproduced on page 98. Our table of realty values tells one half the story; the 
other half lies in the building program which swung giant cranes skyward, 
loaded with steel. Building activity in the Fifth Avenue section is one of 
the seven wonders of twentieth century commerce. Its foundations were laid 
deeper than rock, for the roots of the industrial expansion of the Fifth Avenue 
section are the civic improvements which prepared the way. 

The peak of the twenty-year development was reached in the period from 1922 
to 1924, when approximately $200,000,000 was invested in the erection of every 
type of modern structure, amongst which were office buildings, retail establish- 
ments, apartment houses, and hotels. The effects of this enterprise are not limited 
to commerce or industry; we shall see later how even architecture and the arts are 
stimulated. 

Our record is not confined to any one portion of the Fifth Avenue section. 
From Washington Square on the south to 110th Street on the north, and from Park 
Avenue to the Sixth Avenue lot line, the building drama goes on. In the story of 
the “Old Fifth Avenue” we chose the sentimental sequence, starting with Wash- 
ington Square as the birthplace of the Avenue; in this chapter we retrace our steps 
along the same northward path, which commerce elected to take in the hundred 
years that passed. 

Below 14th Street the section retains its suggestion of repose and of nineteenth 
century tranquillity. Perhaps it is little more than a suggestion; facts would make 
it altogether modern, for at the lower end of the Avenue a new and valuable apart- 
ment house center developed in the vicinity of Washington Square. It was more 


[ 101 ] 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


than a decade ago when the first modern apartment was built in that section, in 
the neighborhood of 11th Street, but it is only within the period we are summarizing, 
1922-1924, that it has come to the front as one of the city’s most important centers 
for the modern type of apartment house, often called multi-family buildings. This 
development has changed conspicuously the sky line of Fifth Avenue south of 
12th Street. 

Above 14th Street the Avenue has successfully passed the difficult transition 
period which is treated fully later, as a chapter in civics. With the happy exodus 
of the garment industries away from Fifth Avenue, a new type of industry, more 
in harmony with the requirements and prestige of the Fifth Avenue section, has 
settled itself. This tendency calls for the modern office and loft building type, 
and has resulted in grouping wholesale offices and show-room” with such rapidity 
as to help this section in acquiring a definite character. Authorities on city 
development believe that the healthy changes introduced in recent years will 
eventually eliminate the use of Fifth Avenue property in that section for manu- 
facturing purposes. Helping this 
movement all along the Avenue, 
from 12th Street north, notable 
alterations were made to old 
buildings, bringing them up to 
the new standards, which replace 
the old needle trades with new, 
attractive Ollices, 

Strengthening this trend 
the 34th Street corner on Madi- 
son Avenue became the focal 
point .ot the city s*silk trade: 
Important textile interests ac- 
quired ground in that neighbor- 
hood, with plans to erect tall 
office buildings. 

The manifold variety of 
business in this region is an in- 
dication of the range of interests 
comprised in the Fifth Avenue 
section. ‘The insurance colony, 
for example, rubs elbows with 
the silk trade; shops devoted to 
art wares and interior decora- [Ris - 
tion, rugs, and pictures for the = © Brown Bros. 
Hamencnat delight ie tourists: Fifth Avenue looking north from r4th Street 
and as if definitely to fix this section for the insurance business, one of the leading 
companies will locate about Madison Square, razing for its purpose Madison 
Square Garden. If the famous “Diana” at the top of the garden is to go, the 


{ 102 





tiga hnaemmemernaetieg casiai ~e 





fifth Avenue — Old and New 


new building will have a tower of its own modern choosing, higher than the 
goddess of Greek mythology. 

In the section immediately south of 42d Street the building activity involved 
a cost of more than $5,000,000. The vicinity of Madison Avenue became the 
center of notable building projects, in which the present day architecture of great, 
vertical masses created a new sky line. On the west side entire blocks have been 
converted into office buildings. 

Perhaps the transformation that most captivates the imagination is that 
through which the Grand Central zone passed, with the erection of massive and 
imposing office buildings, the removal of the old elevated spur across 42d 
Street from the Grand Central Station to Third Avenue, and the fixing of this 
section as the mid-town financial center. Huge buildings present a solid phalanx 
of power and symmetry. ‘The Madison Avenue widening, between 23d and 69th 
Streets, resulted in an extensive office building program, which is an excellent 
example of how closely building investment follows street improvement. From 
39th Street north to 47th Street tower office and hotel buildings, and, as if to 
emulate the progress expressed in the new fourteen or eighteen story structures, 
older buildings were altered, to conform to the new era. It is properly a part of 
this record to state the fact that the investment in the period we are covering, for 
the blocks between 42d Street and 50th Street, in this section, totaled more than 
$10,000,000. Further north on Madison Avenue the street widening encouraged 
the opening of many new shops and the radical reconstruction of building fronts 
to conform to the new street lines. A prominent shopping and business source 
has been created practically over night through the patronage from the residential 
sections in Park Avenue, the cross streets, the Upper Fifth Avenue district, and 
the building of new apartments. 

Several years before this history was written 45th Street was by common 
consent the northerly line of sound office building ventures, but in 1923 the invasion 
of high-class office buildings, taking in both sides of Fifth Avenue, started at 46th 
Street. The limit of this expansion cannot be predicted, for the reason that 
reported sales northward toward 57th Street indicate that the old brown-stone 
buildings will give way, in the near future, to the modern building program we 
are outlining. 

It is but natural that the northward trend of building operations should have 
had definite influence on the rise of 57th Street to a new “‘boulevard of trade.” 
Between 1922 and 1924 the building program added important industries to this 
street. The grouping of great piano makers on 57th Street is indeed a significant 
chapter in our industrial history. The original character of that street, as a center 
for the fine and applied arts, was enhanced by the erection of several new buildings 
for noted dealers in paintings and etchings. Interwoven with these trade move- 
ments came new banks and new apartment hotels. 

This review, which we date with the year 1924, will impress upon us the sober 
truth of the saying that, ‘All things are in flux.’ On the other hand it will 
help us to cherish the old landmarks which remain. It is well to read our history 


{ 103 } 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


* 





‘ ES shoes 
© E. Tannenbaum Photo Publicity, Inc. 


Fifth Avenue looking south from Madison Square 


in the light of the fact that the growth to higher standards is a direct product 
of civic pride, and civic pride is as efficient a check on the wrong kind of com- 
mercialism as is historical sentiment. It is part of our task, therefore, to rewrite 
our building story in civic terms. 

In building, the investor deals with more than figures.. The character of 
surrounding property is an important element. The character of the neighbor- 
hood in relation to civic pride and civic spirit is an important consideration. The 
Fifth Avenue section earned its stability because men had faith in it and fought to 
uphold its standards. The widening of the street, in terms of engineering; is a 
cold fact. In terms of communal growth it means organized thoughtfulness, regard 
for the future, and a vigilance which commercial interest alone is not sufficient to 
explain. How The Fifth Avenue Association was instrumental in organizing civic 
forces in the Fifth Avenue section, in behalf of industrial growth, is a separate part 
of our narrative. It is necessary at this stage only to point out that specific 
improvements have brought an immediate response in building activity, and the 
stimulation has quickly spread through the immediate neighborhoods. ‘The under- 
tone heard throughout the whole movement has been a growing realization of the 
stability and promise of the entire Fifth Avenue section. Men to-day believe, as 
a matter of business logic, that organized vigilance plays a large part in increasing 
business and realty values. 


[ 104 J 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


Pericles, the great Greek, deter- 
mined upon the rebuilding of Athens 
as the best means of wisely distribut- 
ing wealth among his people. The 
rebuilding of Fifth Avenue in the 
twentieth century is likewise a true 
expression of civic statesmanship. 

* * 


It would be a mistake to assume 
that the industrial transformation we 
have pictured was either sudden or 
arbitrary. In history every stage of 
progress 1s prepared by the preceding 
conditions. Fifth Avenue as an in- 
dustrial commonwealth is not the 
exclusive possession of the twentieth 
century; nor did it introduce any dis- 
cordant elements. In: fact, many of 
the important enterprises which are 
doing business in the Fifth Avenue of 
to-day are older than Fifth Avenue 
itself. What happened at the close of 


© Brown Bros. 
West side of Fifth Avenue looking north from 28th Street 


[ 105 } 








© Brown Bros. 5 
East side of Fifth Avenue looking north from 26th Street, with 


bronze traffic signal tower in the foreground 


the nineteenth century was a north- 
ward movement of trade, the end of 
which is not yet, as this chapter is 
written. 

Nineteen hundred found Fifth 
Avenue essentially a residential street, 
with intermittent shops that fringed 
the Mid-Victorian Union Square retail 
section, retaining a mellow dignity. 
Fifth Avenue was then a social doc- 
trine. Most of the retail stores on Fifth 
Avenue were below 34th Street, the 
main stream of commerce being along 
Sixth Avenue and along Broadway. 

The important publishing houses 
of the city were grouped in this region. 
In spite of migrations during the years, 
their establishments to-day are still 
either on the Avenue itself, or within 
the radius of the section. At the be- 
ginning of the twentieth century the 
stirrings of a new life were not obvious 














West side of Fifth Avenue looking north from 34th Street 


© brown Bros. 





East side of Fifth Avenue looking north from 34th Street 


© Brown Bros 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


to the contemporary observer. All Fifth Avenue was laid out with a serious tone 
that suggested permanence. The early pioneers of Fifth Avenue commerce trans- 
acted business in the days when life was leisurely. Fine shops devoted to women’s 
apparel, to hosiery, and to leather goods mingled gracefully with specialists in 
chinaware, jewelers, and silversmiths. 

Then came trade as we know it in the modern sense. It came with rapid 
strides, with vivid enthusiasm, and it settled on land rich in historical interest. 
Buildings were thrown up where once stood sleeping mansions or farm-houses, or 
where a brook had rippled along peacefully only a few years before. Department 
stores, specialists in dress, furs, linens, laces, art wares, interior decoration—all the 
trades that minister to the refinements of life—penetrated Fifth Avenue from 34th 
Street north, and laid the foundation for its retail supremacy. ‘The first trade 
movement was related to the neighborhood of the Fifth Avenue Hotel at 23d Street; 
the second, after 1901, to the vicinity of the Waldorf-Astoria, at 34th Street. 

These pioneer merchants felt such pride in their business homes that they 
bestowed upon them architectural beauty and dignity. The art and science of the 
whole world, from Greek civilization to the present, were called upon to furnish 
them, so that the term “commercial palace”? became a symbol of the new age. 
They went to the classical examples of the Renaissance in Italy to celebrate the 
new world Renaissance in industry. 

It was not an easy matter for the merchant in 1900 to feel sure of his judgment 
in moving northward on Fifth Avenue. Many keen New Yorkers were dubious as 
to the success of what was called a hazardous experiment. The price of real estate 
at the beginning of the twentieth century was considered well nigh prohibitive. 
Let it be said candidly that there was ground for this skepticism. The greater part 
of Fifth Avenue was still lined with old brownstones; in spite of the fact that 
business had encroached upon many of the lower stories, the region was still largely 
residential. But the decision to make the Avenue a center of industry joined to 
art was wise, as well as prophetic, for the very traditions which attach to its name 
were to become the foundation stones of its new greatness. 

The notable growth of the retail establishments in the past twenty years is 
not a caprice of Fate. Though the normal increase in population and the general 
development of New York as the leading city in the world, have had their inevitable 
influences on our Avenue, these will not serve to define the particular quality that 
is embraced in the phrase “‘ Fifth Avenue Shops.” It is fair to believe that the high 
origin of the thoroughfare and its adjacent streets and avenues has moulded its 
rise to commercial eminence. 

Fifth Avenue, through the concerted efforts of its merchants, has emphasized 
the fact that art value is in no way affected by rarity, period, age or source. Art 
value is determined by intrinsic quality and not by price. Fifth Avenue is the 
center of a group which distributes both foreign and domestic wares. Democracy 
for art provides a place for both. Heretofore imported goods were given the 
preference. Products are now judged on their merits alone. In that way Fifth 
Avenue has given a new impetus to Democracy in Art. 


{ 108 ] 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


Pearse sss Manoniyenrtnore ese - ie Se a senna ey 
Re FS Soe 





Ops Z oe: 


The New York Public Library, Southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 42d Street 





© Brown Bros. 


The merchant pioneers nave raised the standard of democratic art, making 
quality products accessible to an ever larger population, so that the person of 
moderate means may find pleasure and satisfaction in form and color as employed 
in merchandise of reasonable price. Because of this emphasis on beauty in com- 
merce and service in business, Fifth Avenue has always the aspect of an international 
exposition, with every country in the world represented in the display of the stores. 
Each great division of merchandise is exhibited with a feeling for the real ensemble, 
which is a vast improvement over the primitive window display methods of earlier 
days. Apparel and accessories; house furnishings and interior decorations and art 
wares combine to make an ever changing exhibit of novelty, beauty and interest. 
Such exposition of Fifth Avenue merchandise differs from a vast museum only in that 
the goods may be purchased and made a part of the lives of those who view them. 

It is a significant fact that a major movement of trade is seldom in a straight 
line, but extends its influence into adjacent sections. ‘This interchange of pro- 
gressive tendencies characterizes the Fifth Avenue Section. Hence the growing 
co-operation between art and industry was not confined to any given number of 
blocks, nor to any single type of commercial activity. The crosstown streets and 
the Avenues to the east and west of Fifth Avenue all shared in the movement to 
bring business to a higher standard of service and beauty. 

The 14th Street section has been the converging point for many of the oldest 
traditions of the Avenue. Its roots have survived even the radical changes which 


[ 109 J 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


at one time threatened to introduce a doubtful type of industry. Old Union Square 
cradled the first fine shops; to-day, in spite of the kaleidoscopic scene, excellent 
retail establishments, art shops, book stores and prominent wholesalers combine 
to make a modern commercial center. 

The 34th Street section with its variety of industries would require a chapter 
in itself. This crosstown street is a central artery of the great city, spacious in 
width, possessing notable buildings, and specimens of fine architecture. It is an 
important part of the mid-town shopping and hotel district and its list of busi- 
ness institutions makes a shopping roster of distinction. Leading department 
stores and specialty shops affirm the retail importance of this thoroughfare. 

The 42d Street section, little more than a deserted region at the beginning of 
the twentieth century, is to-day an important trunkline of The Fifth Avenue 
District. Retail trade and finance maintain an activity which serves further to 
fix the importance of the mid-town area. New banks, new hotels, new office 
buildings symbolize an extension of industry and have earned for this section 
the title of the “‘uptown financial district.”” The well organized changes brought 
about in the Grand Central Section have added civic as well as industrial wealth. 

The most recent of the crosstown streets to contribute to the commercial 
expansion of the Fifth Avenue zone is 57th Street. As far back as 1888, a noted 
American literary critic, W. C. Brownell, reported the transformation brought about 
by the introduction“‘of a new aristocratic apartment house.”’ He was somewhat 
disturbed by the proximity of the new building to a Gothic Church. However, 
this contrast of tradition and novelty gives these crosstown highways their unique 
character. Prestige was conferred upon 57th Street by the notable clubs and the 
civic and scientific societies grouped upon it. Later came fine specialty shops, 
art galleries, the salons of great piano makers, new office and banking buildings. 

Measuring the importance of any commercial development is merely a matter 
of the right perspective. Details may emphasize certain aspects but only a sum- 
mary of the aggregate of interests embraced in a given section can convey a correct 
valuation. If we stress figures in this review, it is because Commerce is quanti- 
tative. ‘True, quantity is only one aspect of the situation; the forces underlying 
the growth we have sketched are responsive to another kind of definition. 

The abridged census taken by the Fifth Avenue Association in 1924 to show 
the range of industrial activities in the Fifth Avenue section discloses that over 
one hundred distinct types of business prevailed in that year. A partial classified 
list follows: 

Advertising, Antiques, Architects, Art Dealers, Automobiles, Banking and 
Finance, Book Shops, Brokers, Builders, Building Materials, Carpets and Rugs, 
China Ware, Chinese Goods, Cleaners and Dyers, Clothing, Commission Mer- 
chants, Confectionery, Cotton Goods, Department Stores, Dressmaking, Dress 
Trimmings, Druggists, Dry Goods, Electrical, Engineers, Florists, Fruits, Furni- 
ture, Furs, Gifts and Gloves, Haberdashers, Hair, Hardware, Hats, Hosiery and 
Underwear, Hotels and Restaurants, House Furnishings, Importers, Insurance, 
Interior Decorators, Jewelers, Knit Goods, Laces and Embroidery, Leather Goods, 


[ 110 J 


fifth Avenue — Old and New 


Lighting Fixtures, Linens, Machinery, Mantels and Fireplaces, Millinery, Musical, 
Newspapers, Opticians, Perfumes, Photographers, Picture Frames, Printing, Pro- 
fessions, Publishers, Radio, Real Estate, Shoes, Silks, Specialty Shops, Sporting 
Goods, ‘Tailors, ‘Tobacco Products, Textiles, Toys, Trunks, Umbrellas, Upholstery, 
Veiling, Wall Paper, Women’s Apparel, Woolens. 

The evolution of trade represented in this summary was not a series of fortu- 
nate accidents. The eminent desirability of the Fifth Avenue section for business 
purposes is not determined by taste or caprice. Men make commerce; and not 
the reverse. The character of merchants is an important factor, equal to street 
advantages, physical facilities, accessibility and other purely commercial features. 
When men who have the common purpose to sustain the dignity of an industrial 
commonwealth formulate their like-mindedness into organized effort, civic plan- 
ning results. 

The commercial expansion which opened this century started briskly, with 
something of a tumult. There was not sufficient awareness for the future. After 
the first uncertainty as to whether Fifth Avenue could be a business street at all, 
it became an almost fervid intention of shopkeepers, wholesalers, and manufac- 
turers to move into it. Fifth Avenue was a sudden industrial fetish. New build- 
ings were hastily thrown up. ‘There was a great increase in traffic. ‘There was 
confusion. 

_ To direct this trade expansion and to prevent permanent injury to the section, 
the Fifth Avenue Association was organized in 1907. ‘Then, its main purpose was 
to oppose the wrong kind of commercialism and to safeguard the standards which 
are the heritage of Fifth Avenue. In the succeeding years it was able to create 
an affirmative program of civic improvement, without relaxing vigilance against 
destructive influences generally. The first menace it was called upon to remove 
was the invasion of the garment industries, in 1911, into manufacturing loft build- 
ings, where sweatshops were hatched. ‘The Association realized that the only 
means of heading off the threatened destruction of Fifth Avenue and the neigh- 
boring district lay in legislation. 

The disastrous Asch Building fire, on the outskirts of lower Fifth Avenue, in 
1911, presented the first opportunity to start a reform along legislative lines. In 
working for the State Factory Investigating Commission, the Association stood 
upon the sound reasoning that any restriction which would tend to keep factories 
out of Fifth Avenue would not only conserve property values, but would tend also 
to conserve the health of the workers by having them employed under better 
conditions. 

The proposal was favorably acted upon and legislation was enacted restricting 
factories and factory structures, making it impossible in some cases for manufac- 
turing establishments to exist in Fifth Avenue. To make permanent the good 
effect of this initial reform, a Fifth Avenue Commission was appointed in 1911 to 
advise and consult with the President of the Borough of Manhattan on all matters 
pertaining to the welfare of Fifth Avenue. The first fruit of its labor was the 
recommendation made that building heights be limited in Fifth Avenue, and 


[ 111] 


I) xx. AUNT RW oa 


PRY EE 8 








ing north from 42d Street 


West side of Fifth Avenue look 


© Brown Bros. 





Fifth Avenue looking north from 42d Street 


ide of 


East s 


© Brown Bros. 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


within a prescribed distance east and west of it, to 125 feet. In adopting this 
recommendation the city officials prescribed 300 feet as the distance east and 
west of the Avenue and a few months later the Board of Estimate and Apportion- 
ment provided for the appointment of a commission on building heights. 

The movement to regulate building had by this time enlisted the support of 
the more important civic organizations and what was originally a defensive measure 
became the nucleus of a constructive program. On May 7, 1912, civic organizations 
and prominent citizens met in a City Plan Conference. ‘The purpose of the gather- 
ing was educational rather than specific and helped to encourage the Building 
Heights Commission in an important legislative program, by which the City 
Charter was amended in two respects. One of these granted to the Board of 
Estimate and Apportionment the power to district the city by varying height and 
area regulation in different sections, while the other allowed the Board to district 
the city according to the use of property, and to restrict the location of trades and 
industries. Under the authority conferred by these amendments the Board of 
Estimate and Apportionment appointed a Commission on Building Districts and 
Restrictions, upon whose report, following a study of the whole subject, the new 
building regulations were finally adopted in July, 1916. 

The work of the Association did not rest with the adoption of sound principles; 
it actually helped in their execution. It compiled the necessary data bearing on 
the problem; legal assistance was rendered, and for the first time an adequate 
collation was made of ordinances and laws relative to the regulation and restriction 
of buildings, not only in this country but abroad. The influences of this activity 
ramified into other than commercial aspects. The very style of architecture has 
been profoundly modified by the zoning legislation we have outlined. One of the 
provisions of the zoning law divides the City into districts in which the height of a 
building is fixed as a definite multiple of the width of the street. In the Fifth Avenue 
section there are three different “‘height districts” —1% times, 14% times and 2 
times the width of the street. This height is fixed for the cornice line. Beyond 
that the building may be raised by terraced floors or through a slope in the roof to 
a height determined by the width of the street and the area of the lot. 

If, therefore, various sections of Fifth Avenue disclose varying aspects of 
architecture, it is more the result of civic legislation than artistic temperament. 
From a study of the buildings along the Avenue, adjacent avenues and side streets, 
one might construct several histories, which would give not only an approximate 
account of business development, but a congealed record of building regulation. 
We do not mean to deny the intrinsic tendency of architecture in this country, 
which demands that the architect design masses of bulk never before dreamed of, 
turning to monolithic construction. Not only must he design the shell of buildings; 
he must handle entire blocks in his construction. Thus the business build- 
ings of today embody a change in the perspective of beauty. Before the twen- 
tieth century the ideal was European, a more or less systematic collection of 
curves. The new buildings are entirely American, substituting the straight line 
for the arc. 


[ 114 } 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 





© Brown Bros. West Side of Fifth Avenue looking north from soth Street 


The zoning law reviewed in this chapter encourages a pyramidal or cone 
shape above the cornice line, and thus eliminates the large boxlike buildings that 
threatened for a time to mar the Avenue’s skylines. The buildings of the new Fifth 
Avenue recede gracefully from the cornice line, and the architect is encouraged to 
give special thought to the street elevation. This development of light steel con- 
struction and terraced roofs, together with the further zoning provision which 
permits the erection of a tower on 25 per cent of the lot area, has resulted in a 
loftiness and lightness astonishing to anyone accustomed to the buildings of the 
last generation. 

The civic activity of the Association was not limited to the important problem 
of building and zoning. Better lighting, repaving, the improvement of sidewalk 
bridges and other temporary structures, improved street-cleaning methods, were 
some of the immediate concerns which were made an integral part of its work. In 
1917 it succeeded in obtaining an ordinance eliminating the construction of pro- 
jecting and illuminated signs. With its building fronts disfigured by huge adver- 
tising devices, Fifth Avenue would be devoid of beauty and lacking in dignity. No 
sooner had the first few ungainly signs been erected than the Association sensed 


[115] 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


the danger which would result from their multiplication, and it secured the passage 
of the ordinance that has since been extended to other streets in the Fifth Avenue 
section with equally beneficial results. 

One of the most difficult situations confronted in this work of sectional planning 
was the trafic congestion which was the direct result of the vast increase in the 
number of automobiles, inaugurated during the twentieth century. Of all the 
methods of amelioration, the system of signal control upon the Avenue was believed 
to be the most practical. When the City of New York decided upon the permanent 
regulation of traffic through signal towers on Fifth Avenue, the Fifth Avenue 
Association in 1922 proceeded with its plan to secure a type of tower structure that 
would be distinctive and in harmony with the Avenue’s architectural aspect. On 
December 18th of that year, in the presence of officials of the Government and before 
a throng of spectators, the first of seven new bronze towers of a design selected in 
international competition was unveiled and presented by the Fifth Avenue Associa- 
tion to the City of New York, the Mayor of the City accepting the same in its 
behalf. Soon thereafter the remaining six towers were similarly presented to and 
accepted by the City of New York and placed in operation, completing the tower 
system of traffic regulation north from Washington Square to 57th Street. The 
new traffic towers, of a subdued elegance, were constructed at an approximate cost 
of $125,000, and presented to the city as a result of the contributions of hundreds 
of public-spirited citizens and business houses. 

As an additional measure in solving the problem of traffic regulation, the 
Association, through its continued campaign for street widening and street improve- 
ments, helped to bring about in the Fifth Avenue section the addition of 148,777 
square feet of traffic space during 1923, and 141,612 feet during 1924, through the 
narrowing of sidewalks, the space being added to the roadways. 

If there is a moral to be drawn from this shaping of the new Fifth Avenue, its 
planned beauty, its unequaled business and realty value, its balance between art 
and industry, it is that every community is the builder of its own character and the 
creator of its own values. A governing administration cannot designate the type 
of business and business development, it cannot introduce new legislation or amend 
the old, without the organized consensus of its mercantile and industrial interests 
coupled with the co-operation and support of city authorities. If we have stressed, 
somewhat in detail, the sequence of principles and methods enforced by the work 
of the Fifth Avenue Association, we have done so to trace a valid experience in 
community development. 


At this point in our story it is well to review those possessions of Fifth Avenue 
which no industrial development can mar or displace. In 1918, during the World 
War, Fifth Avenue was designated as the ‘“‘Avenue of the Allies,’ and on it assem- 
bled in solemn splendid parade the forces of Democracy from every clime. Fifth 
Avenue made war history when at a luncheon tendered by the Fifth Avenue 
Association Liberty Bonds totaling $52,000,000 were sold in forty-five minutes. 
The spirit of this period is beautifully preserved in the “‘eternal light”? which was 


{ 116 } 





East Side of Fifth Avenue looking north from 47th Street 


© Brown Bros. 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 






ONS eon. Entrance to Central Park—Fifth Avenue and soth Street 
erected at Madison Square Park on Armistice Day, November 11, 1923, to com- 
memorate the first homecoming of the victorious Army and Navy of the United 
States from foreign shores. On the broad marble base are inscribed the names of 
the great battles in which American troops participated. On a tablet is inscribed 
the simple legend: 

‘An Eternal Light 

An Inspiration 
and a Promise of 
Enduring Peace 


This star was lighted 
November XI, MCMXXIII 


In memory of those who have 

made the supreme sacrifice 

for the triumph of the Free 
Peoples of the World”’ 


A great monument, in the style of the renaissance, 1s tne New York Public 
Library, from 40th to 42d Streets. ‘The building is low; its material mostly 
Vermont marble. ‘The corner stone was laid May 10, 1902, and the building was 
opened to the public May 23, 1911, The Library may justly claimiaronteraes 
amongst similar institutions throughout the world, possessing in its reference rooms 
1,500,000 volumes. A feature of great interest to the tourist as well as to the 
New Yorker, is the picture gallery, which houses the gifts of James Lenox, the 


{ 118 


“ 
4 nu yf sold uUMO1IG 


wt 
ud 
ct 
ue 
af 





Fifth Avenue — Old and New 











Madison Avenue looking north from 23d Street 





© Brown Bros. 


Robert Stuart collection, and some of John Jacob Astor’s pictures presented by 
William Waldorf Astor. 

Above Central Park is a public building on Fifth Avenue of which not only 
New York but the whole United States is proud—the Metropolitan Museum of 
Art, occupying the area between 80th and 85th Streets on Fifth Avenue. It is 
the largest and most important art museum in the country, and a brief history of 
its origin is therefore appropriate. In November, 1869, a committee of fifty was 
appointed to raise an endowment of $250,000 for a museum. In January, 1870, 
with John Taylor Johnston as President, the first trustees and officers were elected. 
Dodworth Building at 681 Fifth Avenue was the first home of the museum, until 
the Central Park building was completed in 1879. Additions have been made to 
the building continuously. ‘The museum houses several collections of ancient 
Greek, Oriental, Medieval, Renaissance, and modern art. From time to time 
contemporary art is exhibited. ‘The institution has an art library of importance. 

x Ok * 


It has been said in recent years that Fifth Avenue is the pulse of the National 
life. To its upbuilding the whole Nation has paid tribute. Here can be traced 


[ 120] 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


the several periods of National advance- 
ment; the growth of National wealth 
and luxury are indelibly stamped upon 
the buildings in which their represen- 
tatives have found their abiding place. 
The successful man of two generations 
ago was satisfied with the high stoop 
and the brownstone front. Later came 
the period of great personal fortunes, 
which found their external expressions 
in the old Astor houses, in the Van- 
derbilt palaces and in the Huntington 
mansion. 

With the unparalleled accession of 
National wealth in the past two dec- 
ades, there came a new spirit and a 
new substance. In a greater degree 
than before the Avenue has become the 
prerogative of wealth; its importance 
has broadened with the development a 

; © Brown Bros. 

of the City as the headquarters of Madison Avenue looking north from 32d Street 
American finance. When in 1905 the 

great formations of capital moved their headquarters to Manhattan Island they 
| brought an army of rich men, to whose 
aspirations an important city estab- 
lishment had become essential. ‘The 
Avenue thus became cosmopolitan and 
dedicated itself not to a single city ora 
single state, but to the country at large. 

There is a widespread impression 
that these evidences of wealth and social 
distinction are limited to that portion 
of Fifth Avenue above 59th Street. The 
fact that the uptown Fifth Avenue is 
exclusively residential will explain this 
misconception. But to the observer a 
most inviting vista of contrasts is un- 
folded by the notable club buildings 
and imposing churches that punctuate 
commerce from Washington Square to 
the Plaza. They are not alien heri- 
tages of a dead past but neighbors 
to industry and inspirers to mer- 


© Brown Bros. = y +11 
Tp ieday omer ye ig er, ee ATT chants, daily witnesses of the spiritual 
{ 121 } 








Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


values and the social graces that are incorporated into the very being of Fifth 
Avenue. 

The development of beautiful homes above Central Park gives to that part of 
Fifth Avenue a uniformity of purpose and a great variety of architectural interest. 
The assemblage of notable residences is an exhibit of the best that has been known 
and built in the architecture of the whole world. 

When in 1905 Andrew Carnegie selected the 90th Street corner of Fifth Avenue 
for his monumental home, his nearest neighbors were the inhabitants of small 
shanties on the opposite side. Wiseacres ridiculed his boldness but he had not 
long been in possession of his new acquisition, before the precedent was taken up 
bya group of industrial geniuses. His mansion soon became a symbol of American 
Industrialism. Andrew Carnegie was followed by Henry Phipps of Pittsburgh, 
whose success was made manifest in a magnificent dwelling at 87th Street. Then 
William A. Clark built his ornate structure at 7/th Street. Charles T. Yerkes, 
the promoter of City rapid transit, erected a home at 68th Street. Daniel G. 
Reid, pioneer of the tinplate industry, built on the block between 79th and 80th 
Streets. William B. Leeds, James B. Haggin, were amongst those who helped to 
create an empire of residences. 

In the first years of the present century, tne growth of population had so 
elevated land values that all except the very rich were driven to apartments. It 
has taken only a little more than a decade to change this situation to the new 
fashion of wealth seeking to be domiciled in colossal apartment houses. It was not 
long after the adoption of the Zoning Law in 1916, that the desirability of upper 
Fifth Avenue property for the erection of the newly developed modern apartment 
house had a deplorable result. Several buildings of towering, box-like shape were 
constructed, completely hemming in and overshadowing the beautiful private 
dwellings that had earned for this section the title of ‘‘Millionaires’ Row.” The 
Fifth Avenue Association organized the support of the property owners whose 
homes were menaced, and after several years of sustained effort, secured an amend- 
ment to the Zoning Law, on November 25, 1921, reducing the allowable building 
height in that section from 150 feet to 75 feet. "This amendment was the subject 
of court action in which the decisions swung from the favorable to the unfavorable. 
In April, 1924, the Court of Appeals of the State of New York set aside the favor- 
able decision of the Lower Court and ruled that the amendment was not valid. 
This decision released the restrictions of height and threw upper Fifth Avenue 
open for the erection of tall buildings. 

Thus the cycle of change adds ever new situations in the drama of Fifth 
Avenue; but the fundamental character of the section remains. The quality of 
“Millionaires? Row” is permanent, from the palatial Club, at Fifth Avenue and 
60th Street, along the two-mile stretch of imposing dwellings. 

We have surveyed a history rich in the intermingling of romance and progress. 
Progress, from one aspect, is romance; but we have not tried to slur over some of the 
developments in the hundred years past, which might be termed retrogression. It 
has been observed by historians long ago that progress is never in a straight line 


122 } 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 





oe Oe 


Es Park Avenue looking north from Grand Central Station 





but moves along spirals, in which the decline is later merged into an ascent. This 
is particularly true of Fifth Avenue, which has been able to assimilate setbacks and 
even to find the germ of goodness in things evil. An interesting example of this 
fact has been conveyed in our recital of the civic triumphs won by The Fifth Avenue 
section over destructive forces. That victory, with the permanent welfare 
program to which it led, were directly brought about by the vicious condition for 
which correction was sought. 

Because of this participation in creating the greater Fifth Avenue of the 
twentieth century, and because of its reverence for the old Fifth Avenue, The Fifth 
Avenue Association was impelled to mark the one hundredth anniversary of the 
opening of the thoroughfare, with appropriate centennial festivities. No one urged 
it to this step; there were no interests to serve. There was a debt of loyalty and of 
love to pay. And so the Association called into counsel its membership, to work out 
a Centennial Celebration in keeping with the dignity of the section, and with those 
ideals of which it is the guardian. 

This decision met with instant, nation wide approval. Organizations and 
individuals hastened to endorse the movement and in that way to honor Fifth 


[ 123 ] 


Fifth Avenue — Old and New 


Avenue. Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States, in accepting the Honor- 
ary Chairmanship of the Advisory Body, expressed this tribute to the section: 
‘Realizing the significance and the sentiments that attach to Fifth Avenue not 
only in the Nation’s metropolis, but indeed throughout the entire country, and 
even the world, I find it a satisfaction to accept the invitation.” An equally 
stirring tribute from the State of New York was expressed by Alfred E. Smith, 
the Governor, in a message in which he stated amongst other things: “‘ The hundred 
years covered by the march of Fifth Avenue to national and international fame are 
without a parallel in the history of mankind for civic achievement, art in industry 
and ethics in business. Knowing the work of The Fifth Avenue Association in 
planning this remarkable growth, my acceptance of your invitation to become an 
Honorary Chairman of the Centennial Committee, is more than a formality.” 
And from the City of New York, through its Mayor, John F. Hylan, came this 
moving acknowledgement: “I am gratified to have the opportunity to become an 
Honorary Chairman of the Centennial Committee which is in charge of the plans 
for Centennial Week, to be held November 15th to 22d, 1924. The power and 
beauty of the metropolis, its phenomenal progress by leaps and bounds and its 
continued triumphant march on the path of achievement are glowingly epitomized 
in this most magnificant of thoroughfares. The heartiest acknowledgements are 
due to all who have contributed to its present fair estate, conspicuous among these 
is The Fifth Avenue Association.” 

The program of features was entrusted to seven committees which organized 
important aspects of Fifth Avenue achievements through appropriate street deco- 
rations, artistic displays and exhibits of merchandise, and through community 
co-operation with civic, educational and religious officials. The Annual Dinner of 
The Fifth Avenue Association was converted into a gala Centennial Dinner at 
which orations were delivered expressive of the tribute from the Nation, the State 
and the City to the Fifth Avenue section. 

Among the features of Centennial Week worthy of a permanent record was 
the civic program carried out with the co-operation of the educational officials of 
the city. All of the public and parochial schools in the five boroughs of the 
Greater City of New York participated in an essay contest, for which the subject 
of the prize composition was: “Fifth Avenue: Old and New—1824-1924.” <A 
similar competition was held for the best Centennial poems written by the 
children on this subject. Appropriate exercises were held in all the schools and 
services in the important churches commemorative of Fifth Avenue’s one hun- 
dredth birthday. Museums and art organizations contributed through exhibitions, 
the emphasis on art values in the Fifth Avenue section. The growth of industrial 
art and the growth of public taste were graphically demonstrated in a series 
of mercantile exhibits, with certificates of artistic merit for the most effective 
displays. 

It was thought by many who participated in the celebration that this historical 
work was its outstanding contribution—a judgment which is left to the discretion 
of our readers to ratify. 


[ 124 } 


The following pages are dedicated 
to the men and the institutions 
whose efforts have helped to make 
possible 
THE FIFTH AVENUE 
OF TODAY 


November, 1924 





Officers and Directors 


of 


The Fifth Avenue Association, Inc. 


Chairman of the Board 
JOHN H. TOWNE 


President 
ROBERT GRIER COOKE 


General Manager 


WILLIAM J. PEDRICK 


ROBERT ADAMSON 
ANCELL H. BALL 
JAMES G. BLAINE, Jr. 
PAUL B. BODEN 

L. M. BOOMER 

J. HOWES BURTON 
ROBERT GRIER COOKE 
OSCAR COOPER 

ELIOT CROSS 

HARRIS A. DUNN 
DOUGLAS L. ELLIMAN 


OFFICERS 


First Vice-President 
MICHAEL FRIEDSAM 


Second Vice-President 
ANCELL H. BALL 


Third Vice-Presidem 
DOUGLAS L. ELLIMAN 


Treasurer 


HARRIS A. DUNN 


Secretary 


THOMAS W. HUGHES 


BOARD OF DIRECTORS 


Chairman 


JOHN H. TOWNE 


EZRA H. FITCH 
MICHAEL FRIEDSAM 
JOHN A. HARRISS 
WILLIAM W. HOPPIN 
ROBERT H. KOEHLER 
EMIL W. KOHN 

JAMES T. LEE 

WALTER E. MAYNARD 
C. STANLEY MITCHELL 
WILLIAM J. PEDRICK 
J. R. POLLOCK 


E. CLIFFORD POTTER 
FRANKLIN SIMON 
JOHN SLATER 
JOHN SLOANE 
WALTER STABLER 
LOUIS STEWART 

W. V. SWORDS 
GAGE E. TARBELL 
WILSON H. TUCKER 
ARTHUR WILLIAMS 
FREDERIC T. WOOD 




















A mercantile institution whose fundamentals of 

Quality, Service and Price Fairness have made this 

splendid Fifth Avenue building the Shopping Centre 
of New York City 


Ses, 
Fifth Avenue and i. Altman & On. Thirty-fourth Street 


Madison Avenue NEWAViGue ) Thicty-fifth Street 


Vane Bunadvedth - CC —h— = {ie | 
Aunivergary of | FV [Feil =a 
~ Hitth Avenue. 














= 


it 


“GREAT OAKS FROM 
LITTLE ACORNS 
GROW” 


iB 


thd | 


A little history of Best & Co. 


ESTABLISHED 1879 


Sazaar 479 


bE 19 4 E20 ecko a 


EW stores are ever more than stores 
—they buy, they sell, and repeat the 
process. If they are straightforward in 
their dealings, and are wisely managed, 
they endure, and perhaps grow, but they 
seldom mean anything beyond their local 
boundaries, 


Only a very small number ever rise to 
a place in that select aristocracy of en- 
terprises that have national significance 
and a place in the lives and affections of 
a great number of people. 


Best’s is one of these stores. 


For the Liliputian Bazaar—the first 
store in the world exclusively for little 
children—is so inextricably linked up 
with all that is sweet and precious and 
vital in the memories of most people, 
that they regard it with a warmth of 
feeling that amounts to tenderness. 


To its first home (1879) on Sixth 
Avenue, below 20th Street, came the 
gentry of that day, for all the fine little 
clothes that their children wore, and 
though its size then was in keeping with 
the diminutive garments which it sold, its 
influence was great. The standard set 
by the Liliputian Bazaar was the only 
standard by which children’s clothes 
were judged. 


The hand of Gulliver on which the 
Liliputians played became a_ familiar 
trademark and the most significant as- 
surance of quality that could be affixed 
to any child’s garment. 


As time went on the Sixth Avenue 
shop became too small to accommodate 
all the friends of Best & Co. and in 1882 
the move to the then fashionable shop- 
ping section on 23rd Street was made. 
There the Liliputian Bazaar continued 
to thrive and began to take on that 
aspect of a national institution which it 
has since established. Mothers from 
all over the world came or sent to Best’s 
for their children’s clothes and, as is 
the custom with mothers, they tucked the 
little garments away when they were out- 
grown, for the babies of the next gen- 
eration. 


There is no better commentary on the 
quality of Liliputian Bazaar products 
than that those same little shirts and 
shoes and dresses and suits, put away 
20 or 30 years ago, perhaps, can be (and 
lots of them are), worn by the babies of 
today! 


In 1910—anticipating the general ex- 
odus from 23rd Street to points further 
uptown, Best’s moved to its present site 
on Fifth Avenue at 35th Street, and be- 
gan that process of expansion which has 
made it what it is to-day—a store with 
a well-rounded service, including, not 
only children, but school girls and boys, 
misses, women, young men and men. 


Since the new departments were to 
specialize in fashions Best’s set about 
putting them on the same authoritative 
basis where style was concerned that the 
Liliputian Bazaar has always occupied in 
regard to children’s clothes. 


As the first step in that direction 
Best’s opened, several years ago a per- 
manent office in Paris, at 18 Fbg. Pois- 
sonniere, under the direction of an 
American woman who knew the pref- 
erences of American women in general 
and of Best’s clientele in particular. In- 
cidentally, this was a pioneer move, for 
until this time, no Fifth Avenue shop 
had had a resident Paris representative. 


The London office, 168 Regent Street, 
with a resident fashion expert in charge, 
was the next step. Soon the results of 
this radical fashion policy began to be 
felt, and women told each other that at 
Best’s, and always there, were the choice 
and authentic modes of the season, the 


best typical Paris models, the smartest 
English clothing. 


To-day Best & Co. representatives at- 
tend every fashion event of importance 
and every new trend of the mode is re- 
ported to the house by cable or letter. 


From the Best & Co. store come some 
of the most important fashion develop- 
ments of the day. Our collection of 
Paris fashions is one of the most au- 
thentic and comprehensive on the Ave- 
nue; our Whitehall London clothing for 
men and boys is among England’s best 
in ready-to-wear; the Royal middy togs 
for girls and boys are made for us by 
a commissioned naval tailor in London 
and are the smartest sailor styles to be 
found anywhere, the Orpic shoe is our 
own patented last and combines com- 
fort and chic, our NADA fashions are 
exclusive designs for the school and 
college girl. 


These and other features have at- 
tracted to the departments for grown- 
ups, the patronage of discriminating 
men and women, who appreciate Best’s 


* reputation for quality, and the superior- 


ity in style of Best fashions. 


It is a long way from the little store 
on Sixth Avenue to the big store on 
Fifth—but not so long that the intimate 
atmosphere and attitude of friendly in- 
terest have ever been lost. In Best’s 
now, as in the first Liliputian Bazaar, 
it’s “the little things that count’”—the 
little courtesies, the little extra services, 
and extra excellence in everything we do. 


Best & Co. 


Fifth Avenue at 35th Street—N. Y. 


Paris—18 Fbg. Poissonniere 


ee geste ~ 
mnipersary of 
~ Hitth meee 


London—168 Regent Street W. 




















10P7 
y= Bway & Grand St, 
1857-74 __. 


Sacking Brooks Bros’. Store 


Draft Riots’ 63 Burning Colored Orphanage 


West gand St. 
Draft Riots’6% 


Vicks Dlr 


rittlenww's awn's Purnishing ee 


MADISON AVENUE Cor FORTY-FOURTH STREET 


Lincoln's Funeral 1865 


N gE pees Vur k passing Brooks Brothers’, 


a a 
One Hundred and Six Years Ago 


ees 
before the birthday of Fifth Avenue which this volume commemorates, Henry S. 
AG oe ae Brooks opened his store on the corner of Catharine and Cherry Streets. During the 
Bway G 22nd St. 1818 years immediately thereafter, Franklin Square and Cherry Hill were among the most 
fashionable quarters of the city. Governor DeWitt Clinton lived in the vicinity and 
a few blocks north, “opposite the time-honored warehouse of the Brooks BRroTHERS, 
stood a row of buildings known as Quality Row, for many years chiefly occupied 
by the most eminent lawyers of this city.” Cuerry Street had, indeed, many of 
the characteristics of FirrH Avenur, changing gradually from a residential to a 
business street and being, just prior to 1830, the center of the clothing trade. 


In 1818, the year that Brooxs Broruers was founded, Captain Samuel C. 
Reid, the hero of Fayal, suggested a change in the flag of the United States which 
would link the past with all time. This was to retain the thirteen stripes to typify 
the beginning of the Union, while in the blue field a white star would be added 
for each new State. 


His design was accepted and Mrs. Reid, assisted by several of her friends, made 
iain Poa y the first flag of this kind in her dining-room at No. 27 CHerry STREET, only a short Pi Pood 
, = . adiso N 
Bway & 215 St. 1857 distance from Brooxs BroiHErs’ store. 44th Se 


BOSTON PALM BEACH NEWPORT 


LITTLE BUILDING PLAZA BUILDING AUDRAIN BUILDING 
TREMONT cor. BoyYLSTON Co uN zt Y |R’o AyD 220 Bettevue AVENUE 





ee 
peti gpuer ten F 
~ Hitth Ave 





BONWIT TELLER & CO, 
The Specially Shop of Originalions 


FIFTH AVENUE AT 38™STREET, NEW YORK 


In 1924, when Fifth Avenue is 
the fashion highway of the world, 
Bonwit Teller & Co. present the 
supple line of the prevailing vogue, 
subtly suggesting the figure, as 
illustrated by the Callot gown in 
the centre. 











One Hundred Years of 
Fifth Avenue’s History 
Is a Chronicle 
Man of Fashion 


1911 
In 1824 when Fifth Avenue, es- In torr when Bonwit Teller & Co. 
In ibe4 when Fifth deen, ¢ IN WHICH BONWIT TELLER & CO. 


jirst became established on Murray 


13th Street first assumed the dig- YIAVE PLAYED A LEADING ROLE Hill, in the days of its transforma- 
nity of a thoroughfare, the fashions tion from a residential to a shopping 
of the Restoration were the prevail- centre, the “hobble” skirt was the 


ing vogue. vogue of the elite. 


He Bape - 
COUMIVET BALDY OT 
~ Hitth peiares 











BROADWAY AND 
MURRAY STREET 


BROADWAY 
AND PRINCE STREET 


FIFTH AVENUE 
AND 281TH STREET 


FIFTH AVENUE 
AND 391H STREET 




















OUR PRESENT BUILDING, FIFTH AVENUE AND 48ru STREET 
OCCUPIED IN 1912 


DE AC STARR FROST 


HeVG LelvomeOiewiian YOATAS 


Oz hundred and fourteen years ago the fashionable life of old New York centered in 
Bowling Green and the Battery. Within a stone’s throw of this neighborhood, the Black, 
Starr > Frost shop, then known as Marquand ¢ Company, opened its doors in 1810. 

During our business history we have occupied seven different buildings. Each 
of them represented a phase of the northward march of society and of trade. The 
story of our steady progress up Broadway to Prince Street, the epochal jump to Fifth 
Avenue, and the subsequent changes on Fifth Avenue from Twenty-eighth Street to 
Thirty-ninth Street and to Forty-eighth Street, our present location, is a perfect mirror of 
the history of society and business in New York. 

Most significant of all our removals was our appearance on Fifth Avenue in 1874, 
when business men still lacked the imagination to see that the better retail shops were 
about to be dislodged from the fashionable Broadway and Fourteenth Street district. 
We were the first jewelers and one of the first shops to move to the Avenue. But our 
faith has been amply justified and rewarded, and we have continued to lend every effort 


to promote the growth and support the good name of the finest street in the world. 


ne Fundvedth F 
TNIDNE TS A . 
oth Auenue. 








—and then came 


Banking 





IFTH AVENUE was first a roadway between 
farmlands; then a residential street of 
fine brownstones. 


During the early years of the present century 
these distinguished residences yielded to the 
commercial development which made Fifth 
Avenue the best known shopping thoroughfare 
in the world. 


Residence of Mrs. Mary Bell at 320 Fifth Avenue, 
erected in 1904 


One of the notable homes was that of lain i “| 
Mrs. Mary Bell at number three hundred cree st 
and twenty Fifth Avenue, at the north- 

west corner of Thirty-second Street. 





On January 15, 1919, the Bank of United ae 
States, founded by its President, Joseph S. MMARI 7 ue panic ce vwireo svaves MIAME 
Marcus, transferred its main office to this H(i: ee Sama ||| 
site, following the new era of exclusive 
trade which brought with it the need for 


modern banking facilities. 

















Starting here with resources amounting wl ac al il ly 
to five million dollars, its resources, in a \ 
period of less than six years, now reach 
nearly sixty millions—an increase which 


























=S=== 






























































| mise 


Entrance to Main Office 


Ole Bank of United States 


Member Federal Reserve System 


is steadily continuing with the marvelous 
commercial expansion of The Avenue. 


320 Fifth Avenue at 32nd Street 
New York 


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HE mutual Centennial of Fifth Avenue and the Chemical 
Bank marks a reunion of old friends. Both were born in 
the same year, and also in the same neighborhood, because 
where Fifth Avenue starts is next door to Greenwich 
Village where the Chemical started! And so, invoking 
the mutual recollection of the past, The Chemical con- 
gratulates FIFTH AVENUE on the splendors of its devel- 
opment and repledges its energies and resources to promote 
even greater progress in the century to come. 


GHEMICAL 


NATIONAL 


BANK 


OF NEW YORK 


BROADWAY AT CHAMBERS FIFTH AVENUE OFFICE MADISON AVENUE OFFICE 
FAGING CITY BALE Alp lo TH STREET, AT, 46TH STREET, 

























Aine pacoaboni' : 
ATNIDETBAY OL 
~ Hitth sresue, 


he House of COVY an bringing to 
America the CXGUISULE Perfumes and 
toilette creations from the COVY Labora 
tories at Suresnes, appreciates the import. 
ANCE of being established on this yreal 
thoroughfare _ and deems ta privilege 


£0 jon in the commemoration of Zt 


(21 Lemary 


CLyxce “léndome : Saris 





EDU GDP 
7/4.Cfifth Avenue © New York 


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~ SHitth ae ntces 































































































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Cie their establishment in 1869 
through the gracious seventies and 
eighties of old Dlew Dork to the present 
brilliant social period, it has been the 
privilege of DREICER & CO 
oo bring to an exclusive clientele the 
rarest, most beautiful Sfewels to be 
pound in the markets of the world. 


560 FIFTH AVENUE 
Meats 










































































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On February 28, 1822, the New York 
Legislature granted a charter to The 
Farmers’ Fire Insurance and Loan Com- 
pany ‘‘for the purpose of accommodating 
the citizens of the State.”’ 


In April, 1822, the Company’s charter 
was amended and broadened enabling it 
to assume and execute any trust “which 
has been or may be created by any deed.” 


This is the earliest bestowal in the United 
States of such powers upon a corporation. It is 
——= es i I believed to be the first in the world. In 1836 the 
ee I  _E SSB name of the Company was changed to ““The 
Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company.”’ 


In August, 1822—102 years ago—the Com- 
pany’s first advertisement appeared in fine type 
on the first page of the New York Evening Post. 


The advertisement stated that: 


“The Public will readily perceive that the ad- 
vantages of this Company to protect property for 
the benefit of orphans or others, or to answer any 
special purposes, either of public or private nature, 
are far greater than those of any individual ex- 
ecutors or other trustees, who are always liable 
to casualties which no foresight can guard against.” 





































































































































































































































































































































































































Little more can be said today of the advantages 
of a trust company as trustee or in other fiduciary 
capacities. 


In 1906 the Company opened a branch office 
at Forty-first Street and Fifth Avenue, the first 
establishment of its kind to be located in this dis- 
trict by any of the larger down-town trust com- 
panies. 





The Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company was 
likewise the first American trust company to 
establish an office in Paris. Its office in London 
has also for many years been a great convenience 
to Americans abroad. 


From a capital of $500,000 in 1822 with a 
single-room office at 34 Wall Street, The Farmers’ 
Loan has grown to an institution occupying the 
larger part of a city block (22 William Street), 
a branch office at Seventy-second Street and Madi- 
son Avenue as well as the Fifth Avenue office, 
headquarters in Paris and London, and employing 
a capital and surplus of more than $22,300,000. 


THE FARMERS’ LOAN AND TRUST COMPANY 


475 FIFTH AVENUE + 22 WILLIAM STREET : 901 MADISON AVENUE 
LONDON: 15 COCKSPUR STREET : PARIS: 3 RUE D’ANTIN 


President: JAMES H. PERKINS 


Vice Presidents : SAMUEL SLOAN AUGUSTUS V. HEELY WILLIAM B. CARDOZO 
CORNELIUS R. AGNEW + WILLIAM A. DUNCAN + HORACE F. HOWLAND ;+ HENRY KING SMITH 


ae baer ~ 
NinErsary oH 
~ HKitth auetie, 




















THE SIGNATURE 
OF OUR FIRST DEPOSITOR 


_ fOr 


Mr. JOHN H. SHERWOOD was the first to make a deposit 
and the farst to record his signature with The Fifth Avenue 
















Bank of New York on its opening day, October 13, 1875. 






Mr. Sherwood, who was owner and proprietor of the old 






Sherwood House, and a director and one of the founders of 
The Fifth Avenue Bank of New York, was typical of the 
class which, from the beginning, patronized this first bank 

















of upper Fifth Avenue. Later Mrs. Sherwood opened an ac- 






count, and today members of the family still bank here. 






As in the case of the Sherwood family, several thousands 
of our present depositors are descendants of former deposi- 







tors, a recommendation needing no argument. 






The leadership and popularity universally credited The 
Fifth Avenue Bank of New York, from its pioneer days 







onward, are tributes to its outstanding policy of obtaining 









and retaining accounts on the strength of but one induce- 






ment—the inducement of service. 







THE FIFTH AVENUE BANK OF NEW YORK 


530 FirpH AVENUE, N.W. COR. 44TH STREET 














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~ Seth eee 
























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wo score 
years ago Fifth 
Avenue began to 
feel the need Of 
a transit facility 





in keeping with tts 
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our privilege to 
provide it.~It ts 
-¢ our ambition: 





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z 


Gnerald Sreen fade Statuette 
of the Soddess Kuan~ Yin 
Largest and finest specimen of 
jewel fade known. 1736-1795 


Ty Arts of China were little known to the Builders of Fifth Avenue, - 
-whose ancestors brought with them only elementary needs. 

The development of New York, and with it,the fortune of its 
far-seeing Founders lured many treasures from China. Rare and exotic 
porcelains and potteries, their’ marvelously carved and designed urns, 

vases and idols of variously hued jade and other semi-precious stones . 
found their way into the homes of old Fifth Avenue. 

Farmer was the pioneer in transforming these exotic masterpieces 

~ into exquisite lamps and artistic utilities which have carried their 
cultured ,influence into fine homes throughout the country. ae 


Edward J. Farmer, inc. 


16 Cast 56% Street Hew Bork 


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rNiNErsea 
~ Hitth cee! 


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THe HARRIMAN Nationa Bank 


FirftTH AVENUE AND 441TH STREET, NEw YorK 


HE site of the Harriman National Bank of 

the City of New York, is rich historically as 
things go in a section of the metropolis that has 
developed so rapidly. Here stood over a period 
of fifty odd years, Henry H. Tyson’s Fifth Avenue 
Market, a trade landmark of Murray Hill, while 
next door to the market existed “ Ye Olde Wil- 
low Cottage” whose name stood for such good 
cheer as sprang from the liquid refreshment it 
dispensed in those days. The Harriman National 
Bank Building of marble supplanted these 
wooden structures in 1906. The Croton Reservoir 
was at Forty-second Street; the home of “ Bill” 
Tweed was on the corner below; other land- 
marks occupied adjacent sites. 














HE Harriman National Bank was the pioneer 

national bank in the great Terminal Zone 
which it now serves, and is known throughout 
the community not merely for its advanced and 
progressive banking policies, but also for its 
unique and superior banking services. This in- 
stitution stands for something more than mere 
money lending and is noted for its broad-minded 
and public-spirited attitude in civic, state and 
national affairs affecting the welfare of its de- 
positors and the best interests of the country 
at large. 





DIRECTORS 


JOSEPH W. HARRIMAN 
Harriman & Co, 
HARRISON K. BIRD 
Trustee Manhattan Sayings 
Institution 
CHAS. C. TEGETHOFF 
Estate of E. H. Harriman 
PARMELY W. HERRICK 
New York 
JOHN A. NOBLE 
First Vice-President 
JOHN McE. BOWMAN 
President Bowman Hotels 
ALVAH MILLER 
H. G. Craig & Co. Wholesale 
Paper 
HOWARD C. BROKAW 
New York 


E. ROLAND HARRIMAN 
New York 
WILLIAM A. GREER 
Gieer, Crane & Webb, 
ew York 
MARSHALL SHEPPEY 
President 
The Berdan Co., Toledo, Ohio 
JOHN A. HARRISS 
New York 
HARRY 8S. BLACK 
hairman of Board 
U.S. Realty and Improve- 
me 0. 


E. H. H. SIMMONS 
President 
New York Stock Exchange 


HOWARD W. CHARLES 
President 
Charles & Co., Grocers 


JULIUS LICHTENSTEIN 
resident 
Consolidated Cigar Corp. 


ABRAM L. LEEDS 
President 
The Manhattan Shirt Co. 


BERTRAM L. KRAUS 
Lawyer 
PREDERICK PHILLIES 


ice-President 

PHILIP G. GOSSLER 
Se President 
Columbia Gas & Electric Co. 


ADVISORY BOARD 


J. A. McKAY 

President, The Angus Co., 
Publishers 
EDWARD R. DU PARCQ 
President, Crichton &Co. ,Ltd., 
Silversmiths 

A. E. LEFCOURT 
President, A. E. Lefcourt 
Realty Holdings 


GEO. V. S. WILLIAMS 
Lawy: 


AMOS SULKA 
President, A. Sulka & Co., 
Importers 


MAX LANDAY 
President, Landay Bros.,Inc., 
ew York 


er 


EUGENE D. MILLER 
ice-President, 
Hotel Biltmore, New York 


GEORGE W. SWEENEY 

ice-President, 

Hotel Commodore, New York 
ALBERT RAMSAY 

Ibert Ramsay & Co. 

recious Stones 


JOSEPH W. HARRIMAN, President 
JOHN A. NOBLE, First Vice-Pres. 

WILLIAM A BURKE, Comptroller 
MARSHALL SHEPPEY, Vice-Pres. 
FREDERICK PHILLIPS, Vice-Pres. 


OFFICERS 


THOMAS B. CLARKE, JR., Vice-Pres. 
ORLANDO H. HARRIMAN, Vice-Pres. 
CHARLES F. KOTH, 

Vice-Pres. and Mgr. Foreign Dept. 
MILTON S. BILLMIRE, Vice-Pres. 


BANKING HOURS FROM 8 A. M. TO 8 P. M. 


OLIVER W. BIRCKHEAD, Vice-Pres. 
HARRY B. FONDA, Cashier 

MORTON WADDELL, Trust Officer 
WILLIAM B. SHEPPARD, Asst. Cashier 
FREDERICK J. REVERE, Asst. Cashier 


FREDRICK KOHLENBERGER 
Assistant Cashier and Night Manager 
THOROLF MACHEL, Asst. Cashier 
JAMES L. TURNER, Asst. Cashier 
ALAN HARRIMAN, Asst. Cashier 


SAFE DEPOSIT OPEN 8 A. M. TO MIDNIGHT 


Dune Gunadventh - 
peat as 


~ Hitth Avenue. 

















VM 18 24 1924 VY 


AlEARN 


Founded 1827 
FOURTEENTH STREET WEST OF FIFTH AVE. 






























S one old New Yorker to another, Hearn’s 


wishes Fifth Avenue many happy returns 
of the year. 









With our own One Hundredth Anniversary just 
three years off, the House of Hearn is an out- 
standing example of steady growth over an 
almost unequaled period of years. We are 
proud of the kinship of age, ideals and progress 
that link our history with that of Fifth Avenue. 











HEARN MILESTONES 


Tes 277 
Arnold & Hearn 
Canal and Mercer Streets 
1834 
Arnold, Hearn & Co. 


Canal and Mercer Streets 




























- a NS 
Cre) 
eet 


1842 
Hearn Brothers 
425 Broadway 
1856 
James A. Hearn 
775 Broadway 
1860 
James A. Hearn & Son 
775 Broadway 
1879-1924 
James A. Hearn & Son 


14th Street, West of Fifth Avenue 





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~ Hitth Avenue, 







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(Rembrandt—1606-1669) 
THE F. Kleinberger Galleries, established in Paris, in 1848, was among the first 


art concerns to settle on Fifth Avenue, coincident with the growth of appre- 
ciation for art in this country. 

In point of fact, the firm was the first to acquaint art buyerswith Flemish Primitives 
and, later, with French and Italian Primitives. At the same time, it has always been 
an authoritative source for lovers of Rembrandt and the Seventeenth Century 


Dutch School. 
F. KLEINBERGER GALLERIES, Inc. 











F. KLEINBERGER, President E. M. Sper.ine, Vice-President 
Paris New York 
9 rue de |’Echelle 725 Fifth Avenue 
Near Avenue de l’Opera Between 56th and 57th Streets 





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Lord & Taylor 1826 


“<Lord & Taylor,’ name of one of the 
city’s well-known retail dry goods firms, 
first appeared over the doorway of this 
little building at 47 Catherine Street in 
1826. This was just two years after 
Fifth Avenue itself first came into being. 


In those days, New York was a very 
different place from the present city. The 
fine residences lay along the East River, 
and the Bowery. The Battery was the 
fashionable promenade. The present site 
of Lord & Taylor wasa green hillside— 
and if you had business in Philadelphia, 
you went by stagecoach, and the trip 
took sixteen hours. 


The grand opening of the store was 
considerable of an. event, we are told. 
Both partners were well known in the city, 
and there had been a trip abroad, ona 
fast twenty-day ship, to bring back Eng- 
lish woolens, French satins, wadded silk 
coats, kid shoes, laces and shawls. More- 
over no less than twelve clerks were 
employed, and there was actually an ex- 
ecutive to walk around in the shop and 
assist the partners in seeing that customers 
—who drove down in coaches and open 
barouches—were promptly served! 


This combination of merchandise, ser- 
vice, and modern ideas could not prove 
other than successful, and six years later 
the adjoining building was annexed in the 
first expansion of the old firm. 




















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(hanges Wrought by a (entury 


Catherine Street, Grand Street, Broadway, and today — 
Fifth Avenue. The present store was built in 1914. The 
building, a fine example of American architecture, is not so 
large as to preclude quick and comfortable shopping; yet 
sufficiently spacious to provide ample assortments of merchan- 
dise for every member of the family; also for the home (except 
in kitchen and table ware). All items are selected for qualities 
of durability, as well as attributes of beauty. ‘They are offered 
for the customers’ consideration, with the advantages of wide 
aisles, good air, adequate light, and courteous and sympa- 
thetic service. 


Lord & laylor 


FOUNDED IN 1826 


Noe Gunadvedth - 
Anniversary of 
~ Hitth Avenue. 


Rowland H. Macy, a 
retired whaling skipper, 
opened a dry goods store in 
Haverhill, Massachusetts, 
and advertised that he 
would sell at lowest prices 
for cash, 





en 
Be 


| THE MAMMOTH DRY GOODS STORE IN HAVERE 
oY Desirable Fall & 
¥ hare for theless $ a wrneks hem x leeting my Bait fiuans frows the 


yorning and Antetion Honee 


BEAT 





OVS PAICR srsevraw. 
Respectfully, REL SG 





1924 


Still governed by the origi- 
nal policy which Rowland 
H. Macy boldly laiddown, 
Greater Macy’s has be- 
come the largest and busi- 
est department store in 


New York. 





Merchandise of Va by Greater Macy’s 
taste and quality > As is full of greater 
at lowest-in-the- Fie. conveniences for 


city prices. 34th STREET 6 BROADWAY NEW YORK all its patrons. 





oe ay ¢ 
twinersa 
~ Hitth ames. 














N18 24 IOWA! TY 





We take great pleasure in having had a 
part in the larger development of this 
great Avenue 


The New York Edison Company 
At Your Service 


Hine Fundvedth ~ 
Ammivergary 
Hitth eee! 


























‘Permanent Hair Waving Originators (1905) 


OKO 


Largest Specializing Establishments in the World 


All Permanent Waving Operators Trained 
by the Inventor, Mr. C. NESTLE 


CAS) 


12 and 14 East 49th Street 1650 Broadway at 51st Street 
Just off Fifth Avenue and ‘Next Door to the Winter Garden 
OPPOSITE SAKS OPPOSITE THE CAPITOL THEATRE 


ibe Ebene ; 
aniversary of 
~ Hitth acy 














A 











Forty-two Years of Service 
Without Interruption 


New York Steam Corporation 


The largest company of its kind in the United States, with a unique record as regards continuity 
and dependability of service. 


Some Advantages of Its Service 


Dependable Steam Service, ready at the house valve day and night, in capacity 
and pressure far exceeding any possible individual demand. 


Elimination of coal and ash handling, with its consequent expense, noise and 
dirt, nuisances, and sidewalk and street obstruction; as well as elimination of 
excessive heat from boilers in usable portions of the premises, and in mild 
weather. 


Relief from worry about Fuel supply with its varying costs, and from responsi- 
bility of maintenance of mechanical equipment with its possibility of breakage 
or failure causing shut down in the premises. 








Reduced Labor force with relief from the problems connected therewith. 


Decreased fire hazard, particularly with the use of bituminous coal or oil; and 
decreased Insurance premiums, including boiler, workmen’s compensation, etc. 


Release of space, otherwise occupied by boilers and bunkers for revenue 
pace, f j 
producing or storage purposes. 


Economy: that, all costs considered, the service is far cheaper is shown by the 
constantly increasing number of consumers and volume of load. 


Availability of expert technical advice on steam or heating problems without 
cost to the consumer. 


Elimination, in the case of new construction, of the substantial initial invest- 
ment in boiler plant equipment, and the annual interest and depreciation 
charge thereon. This represents of the total annual operating cost of an 
individual operation from 12%, in the case of a simple installation, to over 
20% in a complicated high pressure installation. In many cases, initial 
investment in rock excavation, foundations, steel work and finishing can also 
be eliminated. 








10. Rates subject to the jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission. 


The New York Steam Corporation recognizes the importance to its consumers of uninterrupted 
service and the responsibility of its recommendations in connection therewith. 


fine Bundvedth - 
eae don 


~ Hitth Avenue, 












































YA 18 24 IODA! I 














cA merica’s “Foremost S pectalists 


Catering Exclusively to 


WOMEN. MISSES AND GIRLS 


BROOKLYN 









Integrity 
The Keystone of Commerce 


[ N bringing exclusive apparel within reach of the 


average purse, OPPENHEIM, COLLINS & CO. 


wrote Business History. 


Starting in 1901 in a modest establishment at 
Twenty-first Street and Broadway, it has, with 
a single purpose, adhered to the policy of 


greater moderation in price for Better Dress. 


In 1907, sensing the future importance of the 
Midtown Section, it moved to 33 and 35 West 
34th Street, occupying a plot of ground fifty by 
two hundred feet. Integrity and Service won 
popular support. Additional space was con- 
tinuously added. In 1923 the present great 
structure was completed, covering numbers 31 to 
39 in West 34th Street and numbers 46 to 60 
in West 35th Street. 


It would be difficult to match the sweep and 
symmetry of its shopping areas, the refinement 
of its decoration and arrangement, and the 
spectacle of its sumptuous displays. 


Through this institution, Democracy of Income 
has become master of Aristocracy of Quality. 


OPPENHEIM, @©LLINS 6© 


34th Street—New York 


BUFFALO 


CLEVELAND 


NEWARK PHILADELPHIA PITTSBURGH 


Piel Bunsen 
pipedbe boone 


~ Hitth Avenue. 








——————————— 














WUS ZA I 1ODA! IV 





The 
PACIFIC BANK 


ESTABLISHED 1850 


In the latter part of 1849, a group of New York merchants met to discuss the organization 
of a new bank to be devoted to the interests of the merchants of the city. In choosing a 
name that would fittingly characterize their purpose, the happy selection of PACIFIC 
was made, as a tribute to the new Eldorado of the West, where gold had just been discovered. 


The Pacific Bank has endeavored to be a pioneer in the development of the various com- 
mercial centres until it now has six banking offices in the mercantile zones of New York City. 


In 1924, on the corner where squatters’ shanties stood seventy-five years ago, The Pacific 
Bank established its main office in the Pershing Square Building, today the newest centre 
of commercial expansion. 


OFFICERS 


O. H. Cueney 
President 


WitiiaM SKINNER, Vice President Joun S. Hamitton, Vice President F, E. Gotpmann, Vice President 
F. L. Kerr, Cashier 


Assistant Cashiers 


J. C. Lawrence A. G. IrvINE 
FE. R. Lawrence J. W. Konvatinka 
Lic A 


AN Brunt L. K. Hype 


L. A. Micenot, Auditor J. S. Roperts, Trust Officer 


DIRECTORS 


WILLIAM SKINNER DanteEL G. TENNEY Joun T. Terry 
Wm. Skinner & Sons Cys Tenney ca Coy New York 
Herman W. Hoops O. H. CHENEY Francis R. Masters 
Hawley & Hoops President Lawrence & Co. 
Georce Lecco Lewis L. Clarke Wi.uiaM R. Rose 
New York Pres., American Exch. Nat’] Bank Rose & Paskus 
Cari VIETOR James A. SMITH Tueo. H. Banks 
Vietor & Achelis Calhoun, Robbins & Co. Vice Pres., Am. Exch. Nat’! Bank 
James W. CromweELi W. H. Bennetr Wii1am H. Brownine 
Wm. Iselin & Co. Vice Pres., Am. Exch. Nat’l Bank Browning, King & Co. 
J. H. Watsripce Freperic C, BuswELi Joun F. DecENER, Jr. 
Lalance & Grosjean Mfg. Co. Vice Pres., Home Insurance Co. C. A. Auffmordt & Co. 


SaMuEL Knorr, Merchandising Advisor 





BANKING OFFICES 


42d Street at Park Avenue 
Broadway at Grand Street 49th Street at Seventh Avenue 
28th Street at Madison Avenue sgth Street at Park Avenue 
Hudson Street at North Moore Street 


| Ue me EE 
srinersa | 
— Hitth monet 
















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H AVENUE 
AT 36TH STREET 


Where High Type Fashions Command Lowest Price 








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Fashion Famous House of Russek from an obscure beginning a decade ago to 
its present supremacy as the outstanding Fashion Institution of the Avenue, ; 
where the newest and smartest modes for madame and mademoiselle are 
gathered from the style sources of the world and presented at moderate prices. 


RUSSEKS % I[nstitution of Paris Fashions FIFTH AVENUE 





Vung Bunadvedth - 


Anniver ot 
o Seth meine 


‘ad 
F_@Y_& 















































Suburban Gothic Villa, Murray Hill, N. Y. City. Residence of W.C. M. Waddell, Esq.—1845 
On this site Franklin Simon & Co. was founded in 1902 


FIFTH AVENUE 
Thoroughbred of Thoroughfares 
Greetings | 








Whilst Fifth Avenue was founded in1824, 
it only found itself in 1902. That was the 
year inwhich our pioneer fashion institution 
was established on what was then regarded 
as “the remote shores of Fifth Avenue and 
38th Street!”’ It is true Fifth Avenue was 
in existence before we discovered it. So was 
America before 1492! And all the great 
business institutions that today line Fifth 
Avenue, from 34th Street to 57th Street, 
received their impulse fromT he Store of In- 
dividual Shops, which was founded in 1902 
on the site of the Waddell suburban Gothic 
Villa on the crest of Murray Hill, and was 
then no bigger than the “homestead” it sup- 
planted. And it is ina spirit of gratitude for 
having shared so largely in the development 
we started, that we now pay homage to the 
Street that today pays homage to the past! 


franklin Simon & Co, 


A Store of Individual Shops 
Fifth Avenue, 37th and 38th Streets, New York 


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One of the Great “Department Stores 


































































































=— —_— 

Tir till TTIW DP de 
Petipa ULL ae, Er — ey 
BT WU 





























Vee B OL BROOK 





wit LITTLE unpretentious store on Sixth Avenue in the year 1867 opened its doors to 

serve the people of New York City with adequate stocks of painstakingly selected 
merchandise at just, equitable prices. After eleven years of rapid and substantial growth, 
STERN BROTHERS vacated the Sixth Avenue Store and entered their new establish- 
ment on Twenty-third Street. 


THEN, after thirty-five years of unparalleled progress, with the pioneer spirit and 
vision that saw a greater shopping district, STERN BROTHERS built a new 
palatial establishment with every improved appointment, eflicient modern delivery ser- 
vice and every new system that would add to the convenience, comfort and service of 
its patrons—a tremendous modern merchandising edifice, running from West 


Forty-second to West Forty-third Streets, covering practically half a city block. 
To-day STERN BROTHERS continue to adhere to the same policy as when they first 


opened their doors, only ina larger degree and along more modern lines, in an atmosphere 
of dignity, refinement and gracious willingness to serve; persistent but never annoyingly 


Stern Brothers 


WEST 42d STREET Telephone: Longacre 8000 WEST 43d STREET 


Nne Banradvedth - | S85 ee YN 4 
~ Hitth Avenue, |) py Verse WW): 














\ 


F ‘ 
Wed \ >, 
< on 


Oa Criyv HaArmonithe 
tree-shaded Broadway of 1843, 
the retail shopping center of that 





time, William Sloane opened a 
CARPET STORE. 


Hts business grew. In 1852 his 
brother Joun became a partner. 


Seer With continued growth the firm 
Fifth Avenue, 1024 


moved uptown five times, always 
into larger quarters. In 1872 they 
added a Ruc Department and shortly afterwards the Wholesale Department 
of Rucs, Carpets and LinoLeums. 1890 saw the addition of FuRNITURE. 


Now on the site of the old Windsor Hotel at 47th Street and Fifth Avenue, 
where W. & J. SLoane moved in 1912, the third generation of the family 
serve a greater city and country. Seve floors are filled with Rucs, Carpets, 
DRAPERIES, PANELLED RooMs and FURNITURE, 
ina display unique in character and arrangement. 


Tue determination of the founder to sell de- 
pendable merchandise at an honest figure long 
ago became the S/oane tradition. The public 
has learned to appreciate this, for now hundreds 
trade with them daily, where perhaps a dozen 
came to buy and chat, eighty years ago. 


W. & J. SLOANE 


Fifth Avenue at Forty-Seventh Street 
NEW YORK 


Paes 


‘ Broadway, 1843 


Bee ol Fs 
aniversary of 
~ Hitth nome, 








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The Newest Store on 
Century-Old C fifth Avenite 


The birth of the great Saks Fifth Avenue store this Fall 
has come opportunely on the One Hundredth Birthday 
of Fifth Avenue ~- - ~ it is also the latest milestone 
in the progress of the Avenue from the rural byway 
of 1824 to the great metropolitan highway of 1924. 


SAKS~FIFTH AVENUE 


FORTY-NINTH TO FIFTIETH STREET 


a sapeetee ¢ 
TUNIDET BAD OL 
~ Hitth manera 











How well the founders of this great hotel builded! 
Its location now is the very heart of “the Avenue’ — 
and of the city. And its guest books, signed by 
names famous from one end of the world to the 
other, are glowing proof of the assertion that The 
Waldorf-Astoria and Fifth Avenue go hand-in-hand— 
that wherever one is known the other is known as 
well. 














Dane Gunadarvedth - 
ence saan 


~ Hitth Au 


enue, 











When The Waldorf-Astoria became 
a part of Fifth Avenue, the event 
was termed a milestone in the city’s 
progress. Thirty-third and Thirty- 
fourth Streets were then but quiet, 
out-of-the-way corners in the north- 
ward march of the city and its 
famous thoroughfare. It took rare 
perception, indeed, to recognize the 
site as the point where, some day, 
the old Fifth Avenue would con- 
verge into the new. 























She ¢ Ambassador 


New Yorks Smartest Ftotel.” 


PARK AVENUE AT FIFTY FIRST STREET 


“Where Dining han At 
COD yibape to 
the service of the 
k Cine 


eg eg es ad 


F 

a 

ee 
a, 
a 


Wares twelve years ago, Mr. Henri Bendel trans- 
ferred the salons in which he displays his unique 
creations and importations in Gowns, Furs and 
Millinery, from Fifth Avenue to Fifty-seventh 
Street, this thoroughfare showed no sign of its future 
fashion prestige. The convenient street was at 
that time emphatically a residential section. 


Thus Henri Bendel was a pioneer sponsor of this 
now exclusive shopping district and the two im- 
posing structures which he occupies at 10, 12 and 
14 West Fifty-seventh Street have become the 
rendezvous of the fashionable and discriminating 
feminine world. 


HENRI BENDEL, Inc. 


10-14. WEsT 57TH STREET 


WH dxvettt 
ee he 


ahitthy mndaie. 









































VEN WE are astonished at the progress we 
have made in these few brief years. 





The Girl of Today— the glorious, youthful girl of 
1924—is as far more beautifully frocked than her 
sister of a few years ago as FIFTH AVENUE, 
the magnificent Show-Case of the world, is re- 
moved from the realms of mediocre Style. 


It is now, as ever, the constant thought ot 
George Bernard to be worthy of his position of 
leadership on this, the American Rue de la Paix, 
that his shop may always sparkle with the most 
beautiful, the most artistic, the most vivacious 
Creations of the day! 


One of the Architectural 
Triumphs in Office Buildings 
on Fifth Avenue 





THE BURTON BUILDING 
673 FIFTH AVENUE at 53 At 29th Street and Fifth Avenue 


MN Adjoining the “Little Church Around the Corner” 
ew fork 


ee Sa aie ~ 
VMNIVL TB AY OF 
~ Hitth ae eas 











Roses Symbolizing Boué Soeurs enchatning the modes 
of the Past to the Fashion of the Present 


What Fifth Avenue is to New York, Boué Soeurs are 
to fashion—a crystallization of history into one 
beautiful unit and an adaptation of the fantasy of 
the past to the needs of the present. 





A Boué Soeurs gown is an interpretation of the 
fascinating Louis Quinze epoch as seen through the 
genius of Madame de Montegut and Baroness J. 
d’Etreillis, the famous Boué sisters. 


Founded in Paris in 1890, Boué Soeurs established 
their New York salons, a few doors west of Fifth 
Avenue, in Ig914, attaining during these ten years 
the pinnacle of fame and success. 


A Century of Talent in One Decade 


13 West 56th Street, New York 
The Only Rue de la Paix House in America 


“When we build let us think that we build forever.” —Ruskin. 


GEORGE BACKER, Inc. 


Winners of the award for the best 
building built in 1921, are helping 


to shape the growth of the modern TEXTILE BUILDING 
Fifth Avenue 295 FIFTH AVENUE 


ee masta ¢ 
TINIE TBA 0 
oath Aerie. 


























She Phena National Bank Organized 1819 
She Chatham National Bank Organized 850 
were Consolidated in 1D land now form 
She Chatham and enix National Bank 
of the City of New York 


With, these names ts ie more HE 
ae 6G, pages fl w 
esccrrs could Cewrillen of these 
B "luck of. communi 


CITY OF NEW YORK 








Fifth Avenue 
The Gulf Stream of Fashion 


Never in history has there been gathered on one Avenue 
such a number of diversified interests and of such un- 
diluted distinction. 


SSS 
~J 


Sauntering along its aristocratic borders, it is a Liberal 
Education to view the Arts and Graces of the Mind col- 
lected from both Hemispheres. 


_, > 


Like the Beneficent Gulf Stream in its course from South 
to North, Fifth Avenue enriches Mankind. 


NEW YORK 


Fifth Avenue at 37th St. Ayn anda (0 
MOTWY 
175 Broadway ; iw) ‘ 


The World’s Greatest Leather Stores 


Boston: 145 Tremont Street 


| Dne- Fundvedth ~ 
Anwminersary o 
~ Hitth cee: 














~ CROSS & BROWN COMPANY 


DOWNTOWN OFFICE MIDTOWN OFFICE D7 bo Onee ei OnniGe NEWARK N.J. OFFICE 
409 BROADWAY I75 FIFTH AVENUE 250 WEST 577 STREET ESSEX BUILDING 


MANAGERS AND LEASING AGENTS 
OF 
BUSINESS PROPERTIES 


A Cultural Unit in a Center of Commerce 


The story of how the Fifth Avenue Section made the fine arts part of 
our every-day life belongs to this century and, in that story, the Chalif 
Russian Normal School of Dancing played an active part. 


In 1904, on Forty-second Street, a few doors west of Fifth Avenue, 
Louis H. Chalif brought together those elements which some day would 
make Russian Folk-Dancing a force in American esthetic life. 


Up to 1916, class after class learned his principles of dancing in this 
building. During this year, Louis H. Chalif saw the possibility of 
harmonizing dancing with architecture, and erected a structure at 
165 West 57th Street uniquely laid out for the activity of the national 
institution which his school had become. 


His enlarged courses for children and adults now comprise Greek 
Interpretative, Simplified Classic, Toe, Character, National, Folk, and 
Ball-Room Dancing. 


Scientific teachers and dancers throughout the world use the five text 
books, the five hundred (500) dances and the twelve (12) ballets, 
written by Louis H. Chalif covering the subjects outlined. 


THE CHALIF NORMAL SCHOOL OF DANCING 
163-165 West 57th Street NEW YORK 





He scan ¢ | 
TAVIVET SB ALY OL 
~ Hitth Avenue, 








HeckscherBuildi 


nN 
D2Avenue ot D(*Stirect ng, 


The Tower of Trade 


Tue Heckscher Building was erected 
in response to the demand for a land- 
mark of commercial progress on the most 
prominent, exclusive shopping corner in 
the world. 

Its architectural beauty makes it a 
fitting home for the quality of business 
that it houses today. 

Merchants with vision who have sought 
the ultimate location have found their 


goal in the Heckscher Building. 


CUSHMAN = 
CUSFaLD NG INC, 


Renting and Managing Agent 
50 East 42d Street, New York 


Established 1853 


The 
Corn Exchange Bank 


Beaver and William Streets, New York 


Member of the Federal Reserve System and of the 
New York Clearing House 


Capital and Surplus. . . $23,000,000 
Net Deposits $210,000,000 


OFFICERS 


NVA Le Re ECan Lo Wee eee eee President 
DUNHAM B. SHERER.............Vice President 
FREDERICK T. MARTIN.........Vice President 
HENRY A. PATTEN...............Vice President 
RICHARD D. BROWN.............Vice President 
EDWARD S. MALMAR..................Cashier 
JOHN S. WHEELAN................Asst. Cashier 
FREDERICK K. LISTER............Asst. Cashier 
JCHNSWee ROSS se) eee eee Acsta Gashier 
ROBERT F. CROWELL.............Asst. Cashier 


DIRECTORS 


Walter E. Frew Philip Lehman 
Clarence H. Kelsey Robert A. Drysdale 
William R. Stewart J. Louis Schaefer 
William H. Nichols Edward F. McManus 
Henry Schaefer Warren B. Nash 
Charles W. McCutchen Harry K. Knapp 
Andrew Mills D. Schnakenberg 





Letters of Credit Bills of Exchange Cable Transfers 
Travelers’ Checks 


United States Government and other high-grade bonds 
bought and sold through responsible brokers 


Trust service of every character to individuals, 
corporations and estates 


D dvett 
Deron | 
~ Hitth eis 








FLIODA J 


i fipshes years ago when fifth Avenue was 
ust started, a famous silversmith made the’ 
dishes tllustrated jor the &arb of Dudley 
© Shey remained with the family until this year 
when they came into the possession of (Fichton 
& (6. Ld. and are now included in the collec- 
tion of © Ud English Silver to be seen at their 
C Fifth Avenue Gallery. 


CRICHTO 


Goldsmiths and Silversmiths 
New York- 636, Fifth Avenue (corner of 515* Street} 
Chicago- 618, So. Michigan Avenue. 


&CO. 
LTD. 


Faith! 


Have 


N° man can look forward intelligently who has not also 
learned to look backward. 

Let us in retrospect pick up for a moment a tattered copy 
of a quaint old pamphlet which Moses Yale Beach issued 
seventy years ago. It was entitled Wealthy Men of New York. 

Mr. Beach’s measure of wealth was 
the possession of $100,000; and of the 
1000 New Yorkers whom he listed as 
““wealthy’’ about 900 possessed not more 
than this amount. Only 19 were credited 
with $1,000,000 or more. 

An interesting old record! There are 
three very good reasons that make it 
worth recalling today: 


Over a Half Century 
of Service 


On April 19, 1871, The Equitable 
first opened its doors for business. It 
was then known as the Traders De- 
posit Company. 





1 We need to remind ourselves often how magnifi- 
cently the prosperity of the United States has 
grown. The increase 1n the fortunes of the wealthy 
is only an indication of what has happened to all 
Americans. Wages are higher, homes more com- 
fortable, opportunities vastly greater than they 
have ever been in any country in the world. And 


UPTOWN OFFICE: 
Madison Avenue 
at 45th Street 


LONDON 


In 1904 there were 23 officers and 
employees and total resources of ap- 
proximately $39,000,000. Today The 
Equitable has more than 2000 officers 
and employees and total resources in 
excess of $400,000,000. 


OF NEW YORK 
37 WALL STREET 
PARIS 


Vane Bunadvedth 
Auniversary o 


THE EQUITABLE 
TRUST COMPANY 


MEXICO CITY 


i ; 


e 


~ Hitth Avenue. 


COne of: a pair of old silver dishes 


there is every reason to believe that the record of the past will be progres- 
sively continued in the years to come. 


2 Many of the names on Mr. Beach’s list are not found on the lists of 
wealthy New Yorkers today. Wealth does not take care of itself; it can be 
lost far faster than it can be gained. To make money and to make money 


work require quite different gifts. In both capaci- 
ties a sound progressive trust company can render 
a valuable service. 
3 Some names on Mr. Beach's list are found on 
the present day lists of successful New Yorkers; 
some are found upon the records of the Equitable 
Trust Company. These are names of men whose 
descendants invested wisely, but always with a 
profound faith in the future of America, a con- 
viction that any soundly managed American enter- 
prise must prosper, because the country must grow. 
The speculator and the doubter fail. The investor 
and the believer succeed. The voice of the Past 
speaks to the Present: ‘‘You live in a city and a 
country far greater than we dreamed of’’, it says, 
“‘but we did have our vision and our faith; and in 
that faith we went forward. Do likewise in your 
day’’. This is our heritage of faith; our lbusiness 
keynote for years to come. 


IMPORTERS AND 
TRADERS OFFICE: 
247 Broadway 

















“And one man in his 
time plays many parts” 


Once Madison Square was like the other parks of the city— 
City Hall, Washington, Bryant—a potters’ field. Then it 
became a military parade ground. Later, Madison Farm. 
Near the close of the first half of the last century, Madison 
Cottage, an inn which occupied part of the site of The Fifth 
Avenue Building, was the favorite turning point of the most 
popular drive of the day. At that time, you drove up the 
Broadway Plank Road, past the turn of the Bowery, through 
Greenwich Village, and so to Madison Cottage, perhaps stop- 
ping for lunch. 


Madison Cottage presently gave way to The Fifth Avenue 
Hotel, a world-famous hostelry of the 70’s and 80’s. It was 
the accustomed meeting place for half a century of important 
people. 

And now, The Fifth Avenue Building, having replaced the 
old hotel, still carries with it the same prestige and authority. 
It is the accustomed meeting place of many world-wide 
businesses. 


Truly, the paraphrase of Shakespeare’s line might run, 


Avenue 
Building 
THE FIFTH AVENUE BUILDING 200 Fitch Avenue 

Broadway and Fifth Avenue, at Madison Square, New York New York 


“More than an office building” 


‘And one place in its time plays many parts” 


Where East and West 


Are Interwoven 


TRADE Wr MARK 


The significance of Fifth Avenue is in its marshalling the best products of five continents. 


The House of Finsilver, Still & Moss is a miniature Fifth Avenue. During the FIFTEEN 
YEARS that it has transacted business on this great thoroughfare, it has gathered the finest silks 


and woolens each land and each people could produce. 


aspera 


ORIGINAL COSTUME FABRICS 


485 Fifth Avenue NewYork 


Mae Gundvedth - 
Anniversary of 
~ Hitth Avenue. 














vs 


peerereyrerereyrryyyyYy 


PELL SPPPLLOL SY PPP POLES YOO YEE OSS Se OYYIOOY 


2G 





~ 


it 








AAAAARAAAARA 


HEN victorias lined Fifth Avenue, and 
Fourteenth Street was uptown, Gorham 
Sterling was the accepted bridal gift. Much of 
the fine old silver you admire today is this same 
Gorham Sterling—a gift to the first generation. 


GORHAM 


Fifth Avenue at Forty-Seventh Street 
also 17 Maiden Lane 





AARAAAAAAARAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS 





TRAAAAAAAAARAAAAAAARAARAAAAARAAAAAAARAAAARAAARARAAARAAAAAAAAAARAAARAAAAAARARAAAAARARARARARAAAAAAARAARAARAARARAARAAARARAARA eens 











Set: WENA) A) | Dine Bundwedth 


Fifth Avenue above 44th Street 


“Tslegecniesgtie Meeting Fifth Avenue’s 
: | Banking N eeds 


HE Guaranty Trust Company of 

New York was one of the first bank- 
ing institutions to recognize the import- 
ance of the Fifth Avenue district and to 
plan to meet its needs. 


—_ ‘ 
— as — 
5 


RMSE) | SEF ey Ba\\ \ 


The Company’s office at Fifth Avenue 
and 44th Street has shown a growth which 
is typical of this rapidly developing bus- 
iness district, and affords every feature of 
service and equipment which the most 
advanced banking methods can provide. 


Guaranty Trust Company of New York 


( 


rs = r 74 ( a 4 } =a s!, Le c ih | \ 
MSE Moelle sq ||| | Anniversary o pe A I ear Ee MAU JUSS 
RS eae A ||| — cttttly were. | fl py cre Sern) 
as cH « . 4 = = : as E 2 Z : nyc) 

Cc CAIAS 





2S 42N 1858 Mr. Edwin Holmes came to New York 

from Boston with the first electric burglar alarm. 

I He found that the majority of people had little 

faith in his claims for this was years before the 

telephone had been invented. Electrical devices 

were not generally known. So he had constructed the model 

house shown here. This was small enough to be conveniently 

carried about. The door and windows were electrically con- 

nected to a battery inside and to the bell on the roof. Open- 

ing the door or raising a window caused the bell to ring 

automatically. Even with this he was often accused of prac- 
ticing “black magic.” 

In 1872 the Holmes Burglar Alarm Telegraph Company 
was organized to furnish service from CentralStations. In1882 
the name was changed to the Holmes Electric Protective Com- 
pany. On January 1st of that year the Company had two Cen- 
tral Stations; one at 194 Broadway, the other at 518 Broad- 
way; and served a total of 471 subscribers. 

To-day the Holmes System protects nearly three thousand 
banks, stores and residences in the Fifth Avenue section alone 

Model of and serves Greater New York through fourteen Central 


E E B Stations. 
IRST ELECTRIC BURGLAR 
ALARM General Offices . 370 SEVENTH AVENUE 


KIDDER, PEABODY & Co. 


Established 1865 
NEW YORK BOSTON PROVIDENCE 


HE steady growth of Fifth Avenue and more especially the rapid development of 

the Mid-town Section in the last ten years has today made the uptown financial dis- 
trict a reality. Foreseeing the financial needs of this part of town Kidder, Peabody & Co. 
established its uptown office in July 1921 at 


45 EAST 42ND STREET 


Our judgment has already been justified and present prospects indicate a decided 
increase of business in the future. ‘This office is prepared to meet the growing demand 
for investment and banking facilities. 


CONSERVATIVE INVESTMENT ADVICE 
COMMISSION ORDERS EXECUTED 
FOREIGN EXCHANGE 


COMMERCIAL AND TRAVELERS LETTERS OF CREDIT IN DOLLARS 
AND IN STERLING AVAILABLE IN ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD 


Correspondents of 


BARING BROTHERS & CO., LtTp. 
LONDON 





ae aetna rs 
TWVAVET SAY OL 
~ Hitth mean. 

















iC 


Opposite the Public 
Library ~ 


Since 1842 there has been only one 
change on the historic site of the 
Croton Reservoir, while modern busi- 
ness in the great drift up-town has 
converted the surrounding fields into 
an array of impressive buildings. 


In 1908, just three years before the 
opening of the new Public Library, 
the House of Kent-Costikyan, Pio- 
neers in the Importation of Oriental 
Rugs, and “Early Settlers” in this 
business section of the Avenue, moved 
into the Knabe Building at Fifth 
Avenue and 39th Street, and in 1916, 
upon the completion of the Rogers 
Peet Building, into their present quar- 
ters on the Sixth Floor overlooking 


bd 


the handsome edifice opposite. 


Our present salesrooms here, with 
abundant daylight, are peculiarly 
fitted to bring out the color and 
beauty of Oriental rugs essential to 
their careful selection. 


CWP 


KENT-COSTIKYAN 


FOUNDED 1886 


485 FIP TA AVENUE—SIXTH RFEOOR 


NEW TORK 


' 


it 




















Kaskel & Kaskel 


An Index of Avenue 
FTistory 


1867—Broadway at Bleecker Street 
1882—Fifth Avenue at 23d Street 

1902—Fifth Avenue and 32d Street 
1915—Fifth Avenue at 44th Street 


and Now 
Fifth Avenue at 46th Street 


Since 1867 the location of Kaskel and Kaskel has 
marked high tide in the mart of fine and desirable 
merchandise. And for 42 years past the history of 
this firm has marched abreast with that of Fifth 
Avenue. 


As the great world thoroughfare moved its centers 
upward toward Central Park, gathering to itself the 
most distinguished merchant patronage of the earth, 
prospering with the advanc- 

ing years, so Kaskel and 

Kaskel . . . gathering pres- 

tige and distinguished clien- 

tele . . . moved upward to 

its present point of vantage 

at 46th Street, where now 

men stop to complete their 

wardrobes with imported 

haberdashery that is not 

found elsewhere. 


Kaskel and Kaskel are pro- 
foundly gratified to be able 
to point this parallel be- 
tween their chronicle of suc- 
cess and the annals of the eee 


Splendid Avenue. Old store at Bleecker Street 


Opposite Public Library NEW YORK CHICAGO PALM BEACH 
FRENCH LICK SARATOGA 


ne etek ~ 
ATNIVETS ACY 
Oath Auenine. 


























(C18 24 1924 TY 














7 














James McCreery & Co, 


FADEPARTMENT STORE, now in its 

sixty-eighth year, devoting all its en- 
ergy to serving its patrons. Daily making 
“McCreery Quality” a fact in all its de- 
partments —housefurnishjngs, apparel for 
men and women anf the famous 
“McCreery Silks.” 

R77, 


Ma, 


The New York Trust Company 


Capital, Surplus & Undivided 
Profits - - - - $28,000,000 


100 Broadway 
40th St. & Madison Ave. 57th St. & Fifth Ave. 










Vne Bunadvedth - 
Aunivergary 0 


~ Hitth Avenue. 



























‘THE development of the knitting arts parallels the wonderful growth of Fifth Avenue. The 
humble hand frame of the last century evolved into the many section power machine of today, 
to meet Fifth Avenue’s demand for the finest knitted outerwear. 


D. NUSBAUM & COMPANY 
BROOKLYN KNITTING CO. 
New York Salesroom, 347 Fifth Avenue Plant, Union Course, Long Island 


TRADE LTREINIT MARK rrave: NUNIT! MARK TRADE + KNIT 4 MARK 
ee | SweaTeRs | BATHING 
' 6S bet Ds 








HOTEL PLAZA 
(The World’s Most | 
Luxurious Hotel) 


OPENED IN 1907, THE HOTEL PLAZA HAS BE- 
COME NEW YORK’S MOST IMPORTANT HOTEL. 


SITUATED AT FIFTY-NINTH STREET, 
WHERE COMMERCIAL AND RESIDENTIAL 
FIFTH AVENUE MEET, IT LINKS, IN IDEAL ~ 
AS WELL AS IN GEOGRAPHY, THE ELEMENTS ~ 
THAT .COMPOSE FIFTH AVENUE. 


HOTEL: -PUAZSA 
BETWEEN 58th AND 59th STREETS 
FACING CENTRAL PARK | 


FRED STERRY JOHN D. OWEN 
President Manager - 


ee a a 
Haiiertit  Semmennné — mecsrmih Amina; essen Yair Loner, 


Hine Bunadvedth - 
Auninergary of 
~ Mitth Avenue, 








W HEN Peck & Peck 
first came to 181 Fifth 
mente, the present 
site of the Flatiron 
Building, horse-cars ran 
on Broadway, and the 





Reservoir was in Bryant 
Park where the New 
York Library now 


stand S. STRAUS BUILDING, NEW YORK 
Of equal importance 
to the rowth of Fifth |Peeses in 1882 as a small business deal- 
8 ing in first mortgage securities, S. W. 


Avenue was Peck & Straus & Co. has grown to a national in- 
P k? “fb 3 f stitution, with offices in two score Cities, 
eck s contribution o performing a nationwide service of threefold 


fast black stockings to character: 
the world of fashion. To the Investor, we offer sound secur- 


ities at attractive rates of interest. 


Peck & Peck was the < 


Ww 


first stocking house in To Borrowers, we offer capital to 
the wrorld we produce aid in new construction of the high- 


est class. 
black stockings that vs | 
To the General Public, we contribute 
would not crock. in the upbuilding and rebuilding of 
our cities, thereby promoting the 
general prosperity and giving em- 


ee vit 
ployment to millions. 
” ¥ 


= Tue Straus Bui.pina, at the northeast corner 
of Fifth Avenue and Forty-sixth Street, stands 


PEC K on PEC K today as a monument to the ideals and the 


ideas on which this business is built. 











NEW YORK CHICAGO SOUTHAMPTON 
NEWPORT PALM BEACH MIAM? 


rRENCH LK S.W. STRAUS & CO. 


Established 1882 Incorporated 
Straus BurLtpDING 
565 Fifth Avenue —at Forty-sixth Street 


Dine FHundwedth 
TMNINETB AY 
~ Hitth Grates 





SINCE 1824! 


Revolutionary Changes! Yes, through 
a gradual process of adjustment—just 
such as is still taking place—to de- 
velop clothes that are more and more 
Suitable and Appropriate for the 
Occasion. 








Stadler & Stadler Productions set the 
Standard today for Men’s Fashion- 
able Clothes of Finest Quality Made 


to Measure. 


——— —~ STADLER. & STADLER. 


a. MEN'S TAILORS 
785 FIFTH AVENUE, 59TH ST., NEW YORK 


The SCHRAFET'S Stores 
Frank G. Shattuck Co. QUALITY FOR QUALITY 


New York 

141 WEST 42nd STREET, near BROADWAY E 

138-142 WEST 43rd STREET, near BROADWAY ARLY in the century, The Frank 
383 FIFTH AVENUE, at 35th STREET A d ce 

5 FAST 37th STREET (near FIFTH AVENUE G. Shattuck Co., opened in the Fifth 
20 WEST 38th STREET, near FIFTH AVENUE Avenue Section the first Schrafft store. 
11 WEST 34th STREET, near FIFTH AVENUE 
15 WEST 34th STREET, near FIFTH AVENUE Branches were added as the Avenue 


1379 BROADWAY, at 37th STREET a: 
62 WEST 23rd STREET, near SIXTH AVENUE developed. Through the home-like 


13 EAST 42nd STREET, near FIFTH AVENUE atmosphere of its stores, the quality 
16-18 EAST 43rd STREET, near FIFTH AVENUE fis Eo od MRE d dj 
4.6 EAST 36th STREET, near FIFTH AVENUE of its food, 1ts home-made Candies, 
48 BROAD STREET, near WALL STREET The Schrafft Stores reflect the quality 
56 LIBERTY STREET, near BROADWAY 
181 BROADWAY, at CORTLANDT STREET that is denoted by the phrase :—Fifth 
35 NASSAU STREET 
46 NEW STREET Avenue. 


Brooklyn 
416 FULTON STREET 


Dasa ee 
TWMIDETBATY H 
~ Hitth sears. 





One Hundred 
years [ge 


Gh (APAYETTE 
yevisited America and 
vy : all New ork Jined the 
a) oy _Avenve to greet him, his 
; path was strewn with roses 
B Lowers are still yall 
9 et, always will be the most 
¢ as! %s appropriate way af eens 
ok este2em and affection. 
Ss a 
aes, 


785 FipTH Neue 
at ar Spreet 


SHEARSON, Hammitt & Company 


New Uptown Office 
BORDEN BUILDING 


350 MADISON AVENUE 


Southwest Corner Madison Avenue and 45th Street 


MEMBERS 
New York Stock Exchange New York Coffee and Sugar Exchange 


Chicago Board of Trade 


Nang Bundvedtl; - 
Anniversary 

















> a 


_s 
JI 


electric Sparks oa), nef 

messages ts thovsands of members a 
‘ the florists (eee Delivery Assin J/N 
all over the wor d— divecting them YY. 
to bring Flowers and nes ZN 
within a fowl hours BA 
to the AEM 

ob ect Ne ie ZA Say 


3 yee Ws Cows 
Oye 
Li 


Gee = 
8 
es Se 
1 ee 
NA 


evotion . \ ¥ 








ae Ze . : 


elegrash Delivery Assia) 


- 

















New York Cotton Exchange 
Fifth Avenue Association 





% 


i) Vice 





~ Hitth Avenue. || | KN ag: he ey <3) 
) Ik ‘ = <——_ CERES - <> iS 


ee, 40. KIA Ce 















































HE name of Story ¢> Clark has been a 

synonym for instruments of musical 
worth for nearly 70 years. During the 
greatest years of Fifth Avenue’s growth 
to its status as the world’s most famous 
thoroughfare, the prestige of Story 
Clark has grown. Today a piano bearing 
the name of Story © Clark represents 
the finest achievement in the art—an 
achievement acknowledged in its accept- 
auce by leading musicians and the place it 
occupies in the many thousands of homes 
of those who love music. 
































X 


Story & Clark Piano Co. 


33 West 57th Street, New York City 


315-317 So. Wabash Avenue 1105 Chestnut Street 
Chicago, Illinois Philadelphia, Pa. 


I el ene 


And leading dealers throughout the country 




































































‘Town & Count 


1846--1924 


In 1846, when this publication, then called the Home YFournal, was founded, the 
eae were located at 107 Fulton Street, in a two-story business building typical 
of that day. It was the period of cobble stone pavements, rattling stage coaches 
and excursions to the country (!) by way of Bloomingdale Road (Broadway), 
stopping for refreshment at Corporal Thompson’s Inn (Fifth Avenue and 
Broadway). 


Throughout these 78 years the Home Fournal, now TOWN & COUNTRY, has 
been continuously identified with the intellectual, social and business life of 
yet the leader today among publications 


having journalistic distinction. 


H. J. WHIGHAM, FRANKLIN COE, 
; Publisher. 


i ave nth ~ 
Aumunersars b= 
~ Hitth Avenue. 











We Have Grown with Fifth Ave. 
for 35 Years ~ 





HIS house was the first Fifth Avenue jewelry store to establish itself 
above 42nd Street, more than 35 years ago, following the founding 
of the business in Newport. 

We have kept pace with the northward business development of Fifth 
Avenue, until now in 1924, the centenary of this most famous Avenue, 
we are serving the third generation of many of our original customers, in 
our new quarters at 57th Street. 

We invite you to become acquainted with this store devoted to the 
presentation of jewelry and silverware of artistic worth, highest quality, 
and at prices of moderation. 


Call & Ballou 


JEWELERS AND SILVERSMITHS 
NEWPORT Fifth Ave, & 57th St. MIAMI 


SIAR SAR 





QELS IEE AEE REECE 














ay 


Faille 
I) / 


1874 =1924 


covet 
the Floube 
proud. 


2 AND 4 EAST FORTY—FOURTH STREET —— NEW YORK 
Nne GBunadvedth - 


Anwiver ru 
itth ete. 





On the occasion of this epoch-making 
celebration 

ZUCKER ©& JosepuHy, INc., 
extend sincere good wishes for the con- 
tinued success of the 

Fifth Avenue Merchants. 
To these merchants credit is due for the 
high regard in which Fifth Avenue is 
held by the. world—they with their 
innate taste have helped make it the 
center of commerce and art. 


“The New Trimmings First”’ 


aS 


ZUCKER & JOSEPHY, INC. 


Flower and Feather Merchants 
20 East 38th Street New York 


A Tradition of a Century 


In France, during the reign of Louis XVI, some 
artists who had retained the feeling for craftsmanship 
of the ancient guilds grouped themselves into a small 
organization as makers of picture-frames and decora- 
tors. 


This small house grew rapidly and under the Third 
Empire, being then already famous, they were entrusted : J ie 
with many big commissions, amongst these the deco- wi . 
rating and furnishing of the celebrated house of the 2. om Ei. Details 
“Paiva,” the favorite of Napoleon. This house is cone as ae 
still in existence to-day and is occupied by a well known ay ’ eMake 
club of Paris. 


History 


The organization grew and grew, and, having become 
one of the most renowned houses in the world, opened 
a branch in America in 1893, one of the first French 
houses to come here. In 1906, they moved to the upper 
section of Fifth Avenue, which since has become prac- 


Giga Bie ar bcentes On neous L. is the sort of competence that fights dust and 


They occupy the site of the famous old rectory of sootiness that has built up Fifth Avenue. At the 
the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. age of one hundred note that most of its buildings 
seem to be new. It is their perfect cleanliness 
that gives this appearance. 

The Allied Sandblast Cleaning Company, Allied 


ALAVOINE & CO Window and House Cleaning Company, has played 


a large part in keeping this Avenue spic and span. 


Allied Sandblast Cleaning Co., Inc. 
Allied Window and House Cleaning Co., Inc. 
347 Fifth Avenue | 


This is the history of 


Decorators and Furnishers 


712 FirtH AVENUE 


Aine Hundwedth a 
TNIDE TSA oL 
— Hitth acre 











ink dbo SE LO} 254 3'¢ 


3-4. 5 Avail 


rstable 
MADISON - AVENUE Consta 


The history of Murray Hill from the battle- w Co. 
field to the largest industrial center in 
; Americais an inspiration to old New Yorkers. 
ee ea The American Bond & Mortgage Company FIFTH AVE. 
the miast of Kevorn- has published a short history of this period 
tionary Activities.) and will be pleased to send you a copy at FORTIETH 


on request. ; SRE rele 








AMERICAN BOND & Jl S-Ni . 
RTO Gr Co. (RZ Ne CAlmost Fifty Years on the CAvenue 


Incorporated 


GASeMadicon Avenue Vee as pe ‘ rf ONE of New York’s oldest department 











thea =e WZ, stores was founded in 1827, by Aaron 
ee Oe Cy if 41% Ve ‘i ( (Ol WZ Arnold and George A. Hearn, at Canaland 
y Bis inn : all Uf Orchard Streets. In 1877 they moved into 

Nl He L-—4 YZ, a new building on FIFTH AVENUE at Nine- 

al el =| | Wi teenth Street. The changeto the present site 
oN " te | | was made in 1915. A complete re-organiza- 
Ie (8 Ves ie | aoa tion took place in 1922, at which time the 


building and entire Easiness were recon- 
structed along modern lines. 





















































1853 <2 1924 
Boe 
ee ; 71 Years 


O-FHE 


OR, of Service 


_ Four generations of ‘“New Yorkers”’ have put chased 


Esrapiisnep sixty- | their Books at Brentano’s 


three years ago, at 
23rd Street and Fifth 
Avenue, in the old 1853 Established by August Brentano — front 
Fifth Avenue Hotel,as | of the old New York Hotel. 


POE ECES Sa ae 1856 Hallway of the old Revere House, Hous- 
facturers of men’s 


furnishing goods. ton Street and Broadway. 


1860 No. 708 Broadway — opposite the old 
New York Hotel. 


1870 West side of Union Square. 


Bupp Bui.pinc | 1907 No. 225 Fifth Avenue — site of the old 
572 rire Brunswick Hotel. 


BRENTANO? 5 


225 Fifth Avenue, New York 
_ WASHINGTON CHICAGO LONDON PARIS 








D a 
Ammnversars he 


Hitth aoetie 











RECORD 
ete OVC lO OMNECATS 


More Than a Century Ago 








In 1819, ONE HunpReD 
AND Five Years AGo, 
Wim Barrett Es- 
TABLISHED BARRETT, 
NepHews & CoMPANY. 


8 Me RES 


Just orr Frrta AVENUE, 
in old Sryctair Howse, 
shortly after the Civil 
War, was opened the 
Company’s first uptown 
retail store. 





hs chsbeteletoteinbtodetedeucketacte Ero et tt) 


Today, operated by the 
successors of the original 
Wm. Barrett, 29 branches 
are listed in the telephone 
book. 


) 
@ 


SrncLair House 


BARRETT, NEPHEWS & CO. 


OLD STATEN ISLAND DYEING ESTABLISHMENT 
INC, 


* ESTATES BY CONTRACT: 








Tyler Hewett Bennett 


Estate Engineer and Economist 


The stability of Lire Insurance GUARANTEED 
Estates means stability of the Caprrat Funp, 
together with IrrEDuUCcIBLE, GUARANTEED, monthly 
Incomes through two, three or perhaps four gen- 
erations. Capital distributed as you elect. No 
depreciation; No Inheritance or Income Taxes, 
either Federal or State. 

It is not unlikely that such an estate CrEaTED Now, 
may endure until 2024, thus keeping stable the 
local, social, educational and economic environ- 
mental stimuli for self, wife, children and grand- 
children. This service for years has been rendered 
merchants in the Fifth Avenue Zone. 

An interview may prove of priceless value to your 
family—and you. 





5901 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 











Pane Sunadventh - 
Anninerda h 


t 
~ Kitth suet : 


enue, 


>) 


it 





Portraits in Photographs 


PAST AND PRESENT 


Recalling 


the aristocracy of old New York 
are our portraits that delighted 
nineteenth century society. 


The Character 


of the former generation is renewed 
in this. 


Incidentally— 
Quality in photographs is akin 
to quality in character. Each is 
the product of its maker. 


Curtis Bell, Hue. 


PHOTOGRAPHERS 
620 Fifth Avenue New York 





THE 
BRUNSWICK BUILDING 


is a center in New York City for out-of-town 
and resident buyers. Its list of occupants is 


FIFTH AVENUE’S INDEX 


to the Nation’s Commerce. 


The BRUNSWICK BUILDING 
225 FIFTH AVENUE 






















HOTEL BREVOORT 
HISTORY IS BEGUN FIFTH AVENUE 


E 
ACH DAY HOTEL LAFAYETTE 


P 
: UNIVERSITY PLACE 
THE remarkable commetcial 


growth of Fifth Avenue dur- 
ing the twentieth century has 


witnessed, necessarily, a cor- RAY MONIEORTEIG Tie 


responding realty develop- 


ment. 


We feel keenly the privilege 
that is ours in helping also The Hotel Brevoort is a landmark 
on historic Fifth Avenue, and a 
favorite hostelry with discrimi- 

, nating guests of today. 

BRADY & BOWMAN, INc. 
Real Estate Brokers An atmosphere of hospitality is 
350 MADISON AVENUE still found and cherished in the 

above two hotels. 


to shape tomorrow’s history. 


No. 1 East Fourteenth 
Street on the northeast 
corner of Fifth Avenue, 
the home of the Central 
Mercantile Bank is, his- 
torically, one of the most 
interesting corners in New 

Pavork: 

: Part of the old Brevoort 
estate, a parcel of some 
twenty-two acres lying 
between Fourteenth and 


7 : sea aa a Sixteenth Streets, pur- 

Yl yi hg LASS y= chased from the estate in 

ay Wraps 62 b John Smith 

‘ ff: ra 1762 by one John Smith, 

aoe Widllinery was resold in 1788 to Henry Spingler for one 
a eh hundred and fifty pounds sterling. 


6 West 570 Street Today, one hundred and thirty-six years 
2/... later, the plot on the corner, 42’ x 129" occu- 
Now York 


pied and owned by the bank is assessed at 
For nearly a Decade, a few doors west of $325,000.00, a figure strikingly indicative of 
Fifth Avenue the progress of the district. 


THE CENTRAL MERCANTILE 
BANK OF NEW YORK 


Fourteenth Street at Fifth Avenue - New York 


DAVID H. KNOTT C. STANLEY MITCHELL 
Chairman of The Board President 








Dae Bundvedth - nee 7 eas Hl 
~ Mitth Avenue, || ey teen RY 











AW 


2 Se S| SS SS ee Se ee ee ee 










Established 1863 





[ae ae. 


42ND Street Office 





Wuere 42nd Street, Manhattan’s main 
crosstown artery, crosses Madison 
Avenue—near the Grand Central Ter- 
minal—you will find our completely 





equipped Uptown Office. 


For your convenience this office extends 





to you the same organization, experience 
of 60 years and facilities for the efficient 
dispatch of your banking and trust prob- 


Se 


EXCLUSIVE & DISTINCTIVE 


lems as our main office. 











FOOTWEAR Po 
for | (CENTRALUNION TRUST COMPANY 
Meee OF NEW YORK 


CAM M BYERS 80 BROADWAY, NEW YORK 
PLAZA OFFICE 42nv ST, OFFICE 
Branch De Luxe Fifth Ave. & 6oth St. Madison Ave. & 42nd St. 


077 -Sifth Avenue 


Between Sird and 54th Streets 


New York City 


(apital, Surplus and Undivided Profits over 36 Million Dollars 


SS SES SS a Sis | Se SS as pee Sf en] ee i ee ee ee 








99° 3535353535353535353535353 5353 53535535353953535353556356353i 






| | ee ef ee | ef ee ee fee See fe | ee Po fee 


se] 


zoo Years Old 


is Fifth Avenue—but the Algerian 
Bruyere Root out of the finest selec- 
tions of which 1s fashioned the world 
famous 


DUNHILUVEi 


must be several hundred years old to 
pass our expert examiners—this 1s 
one of the reasons why Dunhill Pipes 
are universally acknowledged as the 
World’s Best. 


The Dunhill Retail 
Establishment 


at 


43d Street and Fifth Avenue 














Ftotel (hatham 


The Tradition of Good Taste 
















Notions of what is luxurious, what is 
beautiful, have been inherited from past 
ages. To these, the Hotel Chatham has 
added the exclusively modern features of 
ideal appointments, unusually light and 
airy rooms, beautifully furnished. 
















Located a short distance east of Fifth 
Avenue, this hotel is within easy access 
of the best shops, clubs, theaters, that 
make up the spirit of the Metropolis. 


















A notable feature of the Hotel Chatham 
is its restaurant, which has earned an en- 
viable reputation for the excellence of its 
food and the efficiency of its service. 
























offers a large selection of shapes of 
Dunhill Pipes and a marvelous as- 
sortment of unique and _ beautiful 
Smokers’ Accessories from all parts 


of the old world. 









HOT EESCHATEEEAM 


48th Street at Vanderbilt Avenue 
In the Heart of Cultured Manhattan 


see Macomber ¢ 
TIWAVETBATD 
~ Hitth acai! 







Ci: growth of this business has been coinci- 
dent with the development of the Fifth and Park 
Avenue Business and Residential sections. 


Intimate familiarity, 
financial history and 
tendencies as well as the 














A portrait of 
Judge Egbert 
Benson, 
painted by 


. A 4 7 John Trum- 
social and business < bull, Early 


changes by which Real fa American 


portrait 
Estate values are painter oS 


affected, have been ac- patriot. Now 


4 in the collec- 
quired by the concentra- tion of early 


tion of all the activities 4 ee New York 


6 . é j ; paintings, 1” 
of this organization on : & E The Ehrich 


properties within the g ; Galleries 
zone east and south of 


Central Park. 


Such specialization 
permits the 
offering of a service For nearly a quarter of a century the EHRICH GALLERIES have been 
uite unt i connected with Fifth Avenue. This firm was one of the first to move up to the 
q que ti 42d Street district. In the early part of the century they were located at 
its field. 463 Fifth Avenue, and appreciating the advantages of upper Fifth Avenue, 


: in 1913 the firm moved to their present building at No. 707. The policy of 
Douglas, Elliman&Co. 


the Ehrich Galleries since it was established has been to deal in paintings by 
15 EAST 49th STREEF PLAZA 9200 


“Old Masters” of the foreign schools as well as Early Americans. 
REAL ESTATE INSURANCE MANAGEMENT 


THE EHRICH GALLERIES 
707 FIFTH AVENUE, at 55th Street 








A History in 
oC Portrait Photography 
Oo 


It has been the privilege of Edward 
F. Foley to photograph the eminent 


The Flundredth Birthday 


Of Fifth Avenue sees uptown 
branch banking an_ estab- Ss 
lished fact, upon which much 
of New York’s commerce is 
dependent. 


men and women who have helped to 
make Fifth Avenue. 








Established on Fifth Avenue since 1899, 
Edward F. Foley has brought portrait 


: photography to a new standard by com- 
This Company was one of 


the first to enter the uptown 
section, thus equipping it for 
that business development 
which has since vindicated 
its judgment. 


bining originality of interpretation with 
moderation of price. 








EDWARD FREDERIC FOLEY 
PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER 


385 FIFTH AVENUE 
AT 36 STREET NEW YORK 


Palm Beach Watch Hill 


Empire Crust Cumpany 
580 FIFTH AVENUE 


Corner 47th Street 


eee | 
aniversary of 
— Hitth tre vite 





M18 24 M192! UM 















































Fashion’s Progress 


A decade ago Frances & Company, dressmakers, 
had their establishment in what is now the lobby 
of the Palace Theatre. 





It was a year later, when they moved into Forty- 
sixth Street, west of Fifth Avenue, that they sur- 
prised New York by erecting a stage to show their 
creations. 


The fashion world moved northward. In i919 
Frances & Company moved into the heart of it, 
recreating the building at 10 West 56th Street 
into a dress salon which is conceded to be one of 
the most exclusive in the world. 


ALANCCS 
o> Voce 
O) essen 


10 WEST 567 STREET 


New Vork 





677 Fifth Avenue, NEw YorK 
(On the site of the old Cornelius Vanderbilt mansion) 


LES PARFUMS DES JARDINS DE 


FIORE Pisc. 


“Parfums de Distinction” 


8, Rue Ybry, Neuilly, Paris 





















George A. Fuller Building 


TWENTY-THIRD STREET 
FirtH AVENUE AND Broapway 


“The list of our distinguished patrons im 
the Eighty two years past is truly a social 
register including Presidents of US., Ambassa 
dors, Senators, Governors, Mayors and the 
scions of the oldest Fifth Avenue families. 





The Hub of 
Fifth eAvenue 


N the lower half of what 
is now the “Flat Iron 
Building” stood for many 


&. yAne. 


years the Hotel -Saint Ger- Pioneer Optical House of 
ait main. It was said, in those NEW YORK 
ieiqitey days, that “one standing long 


1842 - 1857 17 Division St. 
1857 ~1868 172 Bowery 
1862 ~ Broadway and Ann St. 


under old Barnum Museum 
1869 - 1906 21 Union Square 
1903-1912 | West 42% St. 
1912-1922 5 West 42%St. 
1922 Present address 7 E.48%St. 


7 East 48% St. 
Just Last of Fifth Ave. 


i ea enough on Fifth Avenue and 
Twenty-third Street, might 
meet everybody in the world.” 


In 1902 The Fuller Building, 
a pioneer in Architectural 
styles, was erected on this 
sites) Today, “as? then, itis 
the most important apex on 
Manhattan. 



























Nne Bundvendth - 






: Qs YY ( 
))z 
\ =a, | 
Aunivergary of 2) cea 





RWUe, De) 





~ Hitth Au 





















The Core of the Avenue’s 
Growth 


URING the Garfield administra- 
tion, when New York’s mer- 
chants were centered below Twenty- 
third Street, they needed, if business 
growth was to continue, constructive 
banking assistance. To meet this 
situation, the Garfield National Bank 
was established in 1881. 


ees Dre 
i B 
7 e \ 
Since its inception the Garfield Mighty Oaks from little Acor LS ore 
National Bank has fostered sound 
commercial growth in its section, TOTAL RESOURCES 


permitting it to become one of the —intg1I0 - - ~ $300,000.00 
chief business centers. Today . ~- $20,943,306.00 








GarFiecD NaTIONAL Bank 
a he ) The GOTHAM NATIONAL BANK 


Where 23d Street crosses Broadway Oo F N EW YO eB K 
At Columbus Circle 


HANAN SHOES we 


Heckscher Foundation 


HE bourne whence American for Children 


fashions flow is world-famous 
Fifth Avenue. With four Hanan At 104th Street on Fifth Avenue 








Shops situated on Fifth Avenue will enthusiastically co-operate with the 
and with establishments in Paris 


and London, we uphold the Fifth Avenue Association 


Hanan reputation for priority in another century of worth-while service. 
Gimstyic just as firmly as we 


maintain the Hanan tradition for ‘ 
Our sole aim: 





superiority of workmanship. 





= To bring happiness to childhood 


and to 


heeA NVAGN: -& ~S-OIN Give Each Child a Chance 


411 Firra Avenve 516 Frrta AvENUE 634 Firrta AVENUE 718 FirtaH AVENUE 
And Seven Other New York Shops 


Dare Handvedth ~ 
ANMIVETSALY of [Lie AAD sees SIN a Sen May JU 


SDN 





ED) a KS én 







» 


al 






































40 Years on 


Fifth Avenue 


ORTY years ago, Fifth Avenue was 
the up-town home of exclusiveness and 
wealth. Today, it is the main artery of 


HE story of Fifth Avenue is the story of one of the busiest commercial districts in 

Jaeger. The Company was founded in the world. 

1886. It was five years later in 1891 that 
it made its first appearance on the Avenue at 
Number 176. Jaeger was then, as it is today, 
a shop specializing entirely in 100% wool gar- 











Irving-Columbia has been an active factor 
in the marvelous business development of 
this section throughout this period. In 


ments of quality and fashion. 1884, its first office on “the Avenue” was 
As the tide of business swept northward, established. Now, it has four complete 
Jaeger, temporarily lured into West 23d Street, Banking Offices to serve this Mid-Town 
returned in 1903 to 306 Fifth Avenue near 32d neighborhood. 


Street. This continued to be its principal 


New York location until September of the ; : 
present year, when another thoroughly modern Irving Bank-C olumbia 
establishment was opened at 590 Fifth Avenue, 
between 47th and 48th Streets. Trust Company 

ae idlists 1 | Mid-Town Offices: Fifth Avenue at 32d Street 
Jaeger-—Specialists in cApparel of Fine Wool Pa Aes Tape ee aoe 
306 Fifth Avenue 590 Fifth Avenue E. 42d St., opp. Grand Central 


Park Avenue at 48th Street 
NEW YORK BOSTON 


CHICAGO PHILADELPHIA SAN FRANCISCO 


ee 
== 


Where 45th 





The Spirit of The Avenue 


Fifth Avenue is more than what grew from the 
architect’s blueprints, the builder’s brick and 
mortar, the engineer’s steel and concrete. Fifth 
Avenue of today is a beautiful living thing, puls- 
ing with the spirit of Service that dwells behind 
the crystal panes and grilled portals of its great 
stores and smart shops. 





Since 1863, when Hugo Jaeckel opened his fur shop 


on Prince Street, he and his sons have followed the : 
northward march of New York’s business life. And JAY-THORPE —and Pifty-Seventh Street 


when they heard the call of the Avenue, it was in 


Even before Fifty-S th Street be- 
1919, they came— their spirit of service had answered. cfore Hilty-ocvent aaa 


came universally recognized as the 

center of the smartest feminine mode, 

Jay-Thorpe had arrived to set the pace 
for Fifty-Seventh Street. 


H. JAECKEL & SONS 
546 Fifth Avenue 


HUGO JAECKEL RICHARD JAECKEL 
H. F JAECKEL, JR. WALTER F. JAECKEL 



























Nine Gundvedth - 


Li 


be AN \ een) 
ae Anniversary of da NUN) cea 


~ dMitth Avenue, 





NW [908 on all Leon stone | Bip 
stood at J2 Fi Uy HAvonue, hotween 
Shicty Second and Thirty Third Strooty 


(OF Hat site Re ePperoy a Aon ate 
white marhlo building and since May L904 


it tas been our business ontie. 


ere? was twenty yeas ago, bofore He 
so called u town movement began and, 
since then Sfth Avenue has become the 
greatest and finest retail business street 
of the Nbsteorn Hemisphore 


Ce maintain Wh vestige of Ki a 
lente is a dut ds a ene 


Wye Ee. ° imeclioe Pouuard ane, 
eierish tye oe name o Sif Yoonue. 





Hfth Aronuc V36%S heel 


Three Generations of Pioneers 


HAit a century ago, at Grand and Eldridge 
Streets, then the center of fashion, 
Michael Kurzman established the millinery and 
ladies’ apparel business which bears his name. 
In 1906 his sons, foreseeing the commercial 
development of the uptown section, moved to 
Fifth Avenue. 

At the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 
36th Street the third generation, having 





brought the business to a foremost position 
in the field of fashion, retains the high Kurzman 
tradition. 

Of historical interest is the fact that the House 
of Kurzman, during three successive national 
administrations, served the occupants of the 
White House, as well as the society leaders of 
Washington and New York. 


an do we fe Sas our own Tease 
‘Gheodore A. Kohn 


ws hes 


d Son 


Before Middle Road 
Became Jifth Alvenue 


CENTURY ago the present site of the 

RIF Fifth Avenue office of Manufacturers Trust 

Company at Forty-third Street was part of the 

Hb ((entury of Progress Isaac Burr farm “away out” on Middle Road. 

The rapid growth of uptown business 

centers stands out as one of the most 

significant facts in connection with the 

development of Fifth Avenue during the 
past hundred years. 


Fourteen years later Fifth Avenue was opened 
past Forty-third Street. Then came Willow Tree 
Inn, Tyson’s meat market, the Crystal Palace— 
each in the vicinity of Forty-third Street and each 
adding its bit of fame to that of the Avenue. 


New times have come—old landmarks are gone. 
Now at Forty-third Street, Manufacturers Trust 
Company faithfully reflects the spirit of modern 
Fifth Avenue. 


To meet this expanding volume of up- 
town business, this Institution offers the 
complete banking facilities of a home 


office located in the uptown district. 


Personal, firm and corporation 
accounts are cordially invited. 


LIBERTY NATIONAL BANK 
in NEW YORK 


256 West 57th Street 


EIRP AV ENUEIOPEHICE 


Manufacturers Trust Company 
513 Fifth Ave., corner 43rd St. 


Nne Bunadvedth; 
Anniversary of 
~ Hitth Avenue. 


= 








Fashion Has Sts The Methodist Book Cee 


PRINTERS BINDERS PUBLISHERS 


Background Sarees 





May, 1789 





There is a certain grace, a certain exclu- 
siveness, denoted in the word—“fashion.”’ 


Fifth Avenue, through its century of his- 
tory, has been Fashion’s ideal background. 150 Fifth 
Maison Bimone, season by season Avenue 
throughout its twenty-eight years, has At 
originated and introduced from Paris the : 

i pmerely : Twentieth 
smartest and most distinguished modes in S 
Gowns, Furs and Wraps. It has been treet 
worthy of the section in which it has grown. 


Maison Siijone, 


America’s Fashion Emporium 


Since 


1889 


60-62-64 West 57th Street THE OLDEST PUBLISHING HOUSE IN AMERICA 
AND THE LARGEST PUBLISHER OF RELIGIOUS 
New York LITERATURE IN THE WORLD 


C for many centurles 


Silks have graced, in costume 
or drapery, the festival event. 
Now they do homage to this, 
the Centenary of New York’s 
proudest thoroughfare. In the 
Primrose Silk Stores—at the 
very centre of the Avenue’s 
business activities—they bril- 
liantly exemplify the modes 
of 1924 








METROPOLITAN TRUST COMPANY 


of the City of New York “Primrose Silk Storey 


SAMUEL McROBERTS 
President 


Resources over - - $50,000,000 Silks Exclusively 
120 Broadway 716 Fifth Avenue FIFTH AVENUE AT THIRTY-EIGHTH STREET 


| Dine Yundwedth 
TMIVELTBATY GO 
~ Hitth cet 


















Fifth Avenue 


The World’s Greatest 
Thoroughfare 


OR three generations we have suc- 
cessfully, in the interest of our 
clients, bought, sold and leased business 


and residential properties on and adjacent 
to Fifth Avenue. 


We are pioneer brokers in promoting the 
modern apartment home on residential 
Fifth Avenue. 


We congratulate the Fifth Avenue Associa- 
tion upon their slogan 


“Whatever Helps Fifth Avenue 
Helps New York” 


FeAse & ELviman 


340 Madison Avenue, N.Y.- Tel.Murray Hill 6200 


Beatty Tris 


Wixutam C. Demorsst, Pres. 


s0g9 FIFTH AVENUE 
1896 1924 





+ 


60 Liberty Street 509 Fifth Avenue 
OPERATORS 


AND 


DEVELOPERS 
OF 
REAL ESTATE 


including 
ALBa 


ON CHE SOUND 


In 28 Years, over 24,000 Real Estate Transactions 


4 ((18 94 F19D4 TK 

























}o Pano op 






































Dedicated to the memory of Theodore Roosevelt 
The one-hundredth birthday of Fifth 
Avenue does not merely complete a 
century. It begins a new one. 

The Roosevelt likewise begins a new 
century in hotel ideals. 
Private Roof Gardens Teddy Bear Cave for Children 
The Roosevelt Grill with Ben Bernie 


and his Roosevelt Orchestra 
Direct Underground Passage to Grand Central Terminal 


THE ROOSEVELT 
MADISON AVENUE AND FORTY-FIFTH STREET 
EDWARD CLINTON Focec, Managing Director 


eA (Corner of Paris on Fifth Avenue 
Devoted to Fine Furs 





ORevillon Freres 


FIFTH AVENUE 
fat 53rd Street 
NEW YORK 


The history of REVILLON FRERES 
covers two centuries of world trading. 
Their first establishment in New York 
was in the downtown district. Gradually 
following the fine shopping center on its 
movement North, they finally located, in 
1915, at their present building, 670 Fifth 
Avenue, corner 53d Street. 

In these beautiful surroundings are sold 
only the finest garments in Fur and Cloth, 
made according to the latest models of 
Paris designers and couturiers. 








Mune Bundecdth - 
Aunivergary ot 
~ hitthy Aurnur, 



















Sarnoff & Co. 


362 FIFTH AVE — NEWYORK GIPY 
& 


The Newest ‘‘Fifth Avenue”’ Establish- 
ment with the Best ‘Fifth Avenue” 
Traditions 


It is the good fortune of Sarnoff’s 
to make its debut on ‘The 
Avenue’’ in time to figure in its 
centennial celebration. This es- 
tablishment fully recognizes its 
responsibility to its distinguished 
neighbors, and is definitely com- 
mitted to the best traditions of 
the Avenue a hundred years old. 


DRESSES GOWNS SUITS 
COATS WRAPS FURS 
SPORTSWEAR MILLINERY 


OUR successive generations of New Yorkers have shared 
the wonders of the great Schwarz Toy establishment. 
The first F. A. O. Schwarz shop was opened in 1870 at 
765 Broadway, opposite A. T. Stewart’s. Three times in the 
past half century the growth of the Schwarz business com- 
pelled removal to larger quarters—in 1880 to 42 East 
14th Street, in 1896 to 35-41 West 23rd Street, and in 1909 
to our present location, 5th Avenue at 31st Street, where 
60,000 square feet of floor space are utilized. 


F.A.O.SCHWARZ 


“The Home of Toys” 


Firta AVENUE CORNER OF THIRTY-FIRST STREET 


> 


Q 
Jotel St Regis 


New York 


Fifth Avenue» Fifty fifth Street 


For a Generation the Synonym of 
That which Is Distinguished. 


Putnam Building 
Two West Forty-fifth 
Street 
Fust west of Fifth 
Avenue 


This building epitomizes the tendencies which created 
contemporary Fifth Avenue. It was one of the first 
modern office buildings erected in the Fifth Avenue sec- 
tion, above 42d Street, and its high class of occupants have 
added much to the successful development of the section. 
It is owned and operated by 


The Sperry Realty Company 


149 BROADWAY NEW YORK 


be Rceniesntas | 
AVIV DEL BALDY H 
~ Hitth Fen es 








SE lailVE 


NAEYAN YS: 
of 


pleey gle, le, 


TULLE chal Stein 8 Blaine 
SERVICE i 


FURRIERS ~ DRESSMAKERS ~ TAILORS 


13 and 15 West 5Tth Street 


Al LATER 


Since its inception in 33d Street in 1894 the 

eee ue house of Stein 8 Blaine has twice moved 

MEN'S SHOP UPTOWN SHOP northward with the vanguard of Fifth Avenue 
529 FIFTH AVENUE —15 EAST 57th STREET always maintaining the high standard 
originally established w—- ——- ——- 


Stewart & Mo. | 


Correct Apparel forWomen& Misses 
Fifth Avenue at 37th Street 


The 
SPALDING 
BUILDING 
Fifth Avenue 
at 43d Street 


A. G. SPALDING & BROS. have been identified with Fifth Ave- 


f ds of 15 years. oA : : 
ER yen es SHOP whose prestige and dominance 


Now, as when first established, it is representative of the ultimate . ° . : 

in everything for the out-of-doors—Women’s Country Clothes, in the field of fashion iSmas much in the 
Men’s Country Clothes, Polo and Saddlery, Boys’ and Girls’ School : 

and College and Camp Departments, Athletic Goods. foreground of Fi fth Avenue as that of 


In the heart of the shopping district, and easily accessible to Hotels, Fi fth Avenue 1s in the foreground of 


Railroad Terminals, and Theatres, Spaldings rightly serve as head- h l 
quarters for all followers of the great outdoors. the wor d. 


ae paces! ¢ 
aNinergary p 
~ Hitth Avenues 











From Ieué Nova le 
Fifth Avenus 


Fifth Avenue, with its century-old traditions, 
forms a fitting location, indeed, for the House : 
of Vivaudou, with its age-old history as one of have played a most prominent part. 


the leading perfumery and toiletries’ establish- Our modest share in the creation of the 
ments in France. “Greater” Fifth Avenue section of today 
is part of the history of the World’s 
Greatest ““Avenue of Opportunities.” 

Our organization, our service and our 
vision are pledged to a continuance of 
this healthy growth. 


THOENS & FLAUNLACHER 


INCORPORATED 
PARIS NEW YORK REAL ESTATE 
25 WEST THIRTY-THIRD STREET 
NEW YORK 





Tue development of Fifth Avenue has 
been largely the result of Civic planning, 
in which the Fifth Avenue Association 
and the Realty Interests of New York 


The famous Vivaudou salon on Rue Royale in 
Paris sends affectionate congratulations to its 
American reproduction at 469 Fifth Avenue— 
and to all who are maintaining the fame and 
prestige of that wonderful thoroughfare. 


S WE COMPLETE THIS RECORD OF 

THE REPRESENTATIVE FORCES EM- 
BRACED IN THE FIFTH AVENUE SECTION, 
IN 1924, IT IS PROPER TO ACKNOWLEDGE 
THAT, IN A LARGE MEASURE, THESE 
MEN AND THESE INSTITUTIONS HAVE 
MADE POSSIBLE A GREATER FIFTH AVE- 
NUE BUILT UPON THE TRADITIONS AND 
STANDARDS OF THE OLD. 


THEY, TOGETHER WITH OTHER MEM- 
BERS, HAVE STRONGLY SUPPORTED THE 





In all the one hundred years during 
which Fifth Avenue has been giving 
distinction to the City of New York it 
has been graced by no nobler or more 
conspicuous structure than the Flatiron 
Building, located at the intersection of 
Broadway and Twenty-third Street, the 
most famous tenant in which, since 1881, 
is the United Cigar Stores Company of 
America, an international enterprise now 
embracing a chain of thousands of retail 
stores. 


ORGANIZED CIVIC EFFORT, WHICH WAS 
ENTRUSTED TO THE FIFTH AVENUE 
ASSOCIATION, FOR THE MAINTENANCE 
AND ENHANCEMENT OF FIFTH AVENUE 
IDEALS. 


WITH THEIR CONTINUED AID AND THE 
COOPERATION OF AN EVER-GROWING 
MEMBERSHIP, WE PLEDGE OURSELVES 
TO INCREASED CIVIC ENTERPRISE, SO 
THAT THE FIFTH AVENUE OF TOMORROW 
WILL BE GREATER EVEN THAN THE 
FIFTH AVENUE OF TODAY. 


This space is the contribution of 
a member of the Fifth Avenue 
Association. 


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TWNEersa 0 
~ Hitth aciraee 














New York’s Centennial Store 


JOHN WANAMAKER—Formerly A. T. Stewart 
Stands on the Old ‘Randall Farm from which Fifth cAvenue Started 100 years ago 
















































































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was on the old Randall Farm. The Farm, then valued at 
about £5,000, extended to Astor Place. On this historic 
ground A. T. Stewart erected in 1862 the store which brought 
him world fame and made him New York’s first great merchant. 


} METH AVENUBP’S starting point at Washington Square 


Stewart earlier had built other stores—on lower Broadway. 
His first store was at 283 Broadway, opposite Washington 
Hall. This was opened in 1823. Stewart’s—now Wanamaker’s 
—is therefore New York’s first Centennial Store of its kind, 
still in business and thriving over a hundred years. 


John Wanamaker with principles of his own began his 
pioneer work in American storekeeping in 1861. He and 
Stewart were friends. Their business minds ran in accord. 
Honest goods and advertising. One price to all. Privilege of 
returning merchandise. Courtesy and complete satisfaction to 
the customer. Just rewards to workers whether in mill or store. 
These and other steps of progress were taken in business 
largely through the vision and tenacity of John Wanamaker 
and A. T. Stewart. It was only natural that John Wanamaker 
should take over the Stewart business in New York, when the 


way opened. It was inevitable that he would not only continue 
the Stewart heritage in New York, but enrich and enlarge it, 


Today, where two great buildings stand at Astor Place, one 
stood before on the old Randall Farm from which Fifth 
Avenue began. The largerWanamaker building is being made 
still larger by a $3,000,000 expansion to meet the ever-increas- 
ing business. 


It is more than a coincidence that as A. T. Stewart’s resi- 
dence stood at 34th & Fifth Avenue, now the Irving Bank— 
Columbia Trust Company, so the residence of the present 
owner of the Wanamaker business stands at the corner of 
Fifth Avenue and Washington Square at one boundary of the 
old Randall Farm, and the Wanamaker Store, itself, with the 
old A. T. Stewart building as part of it, stands at Astor Place, 
the other boundary of Randall Farm, out of which walked 
Fifth Avenue a hundred years ago. 


And now New York’s Centennial Store is in its first year of 
the second century of progress. It has all the vigor, daring 
and enthusiasm of youth, with the ripened experience, know- 
ledge and intuition of a century of service. 


JOHN WANAMAKER NEwyorkK 


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PRINTING CAR AS IT APPEARED AT THE CABLE JUBILEE, SEPTEMBER 1, 1858, WITH HOE’S PRESSES, 
BEING WORKED BY T2E PRINTERS OF WYNKOOP, HALLENBECK & THOMAS’S ESTABLISHMENT 


THE PRINTING TRUCK IN THE TELEGRAPHIC PROCESSION 


One of the principal and most attractive features in the great municipal procession on the telegraph jubilee 
of September 1st was the massive truck, twenty feet long by ten broad, on which Hoe’s printing presses and 
an old hand press were kept at work during the entire passage of the great cortege. 

{ This truck was supplied by Messrs. Hoe to the New York Typographical Society, and was drawn by eight 


powerful horses. The men were from the well-known establishment of Messrs. Wynkoop, Hallenbeck & 
Thomas, whose printers struck off thousands of impressions of brief histories of the telegraph, Mrs. Stephens’ 
Ode, &c., from one of the celebrated cylinder presses, and distributed them among the multitude. 


[From Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, SEPT. 25, 1858] 


ROVIDING an exceptional and everwidening printing service in New York for 
sixty-eight years is no mean accomplishment. 


From presses as pictured above to our presses which produced in colors this pictorial- 
historical story of Fifth Avenue, is a noteworthy development in the printing industry. 


Not only do we print such books as this: In our organization there are a number of 
men, thoroughly trained consultants, competent to prepare plans for advertising and 
selling campaigns, and to advise in all matters relating to letter-press or offset printing— 
from leaflets to board-bound volumes. 


The prize cover design in eight colors, on this book, is from our offset presses. 


RoBeErRT B. HAMILTON 


of our staff, who supervised the details of this centennial production, will esteem it a 
privilege to serve those to whom such assistance as described above, appeals. 


WIHIC 
1856 


WYNKOOP HALLENBECK CRAWFORD CoO. 
PRINTING HEADQUARTERS 


80 LAFAYETTE STREET, NEW ‘YORK CITY 


Nae Bunadvedth - 
Anniversary of 
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